70 Quotes by Ethan Coen

Dave Van Ronk is not an obscure figure. He's the biggest figure on an obscure scene, playing a kind of niche music that we knew and liked.

It was never an ambition to grow up and win an Academy Award, so when it happens, you go, 'Weird!'

We loved the language in Cormac McCarthy's 'No Country,' which is really about the region, while in 'True Grit' it's more about period: people did speak more formally and floridly.

All we think about is how to keep the audience engaged, and normally we're big on plot because that's the easy way to do it.

That's interesting: people deriving their identities from their music.

Oscars just ain't gonna do it for me anymore. I need the Nobel Peace Prize. The Oscars have worn off, man.

With 'The Big Lebowski,' we were really consciously thinking about doing a Raymond Chandler story, as much as it's about L.A.

When you're younger, you kind of assume you'll be fine at whatever. Then you get older, and you're either unsuccessful and you wonder why, or you're successful and you wonder why.

Whatever faith you have, you have that crisis: what am I doing?