Ethan Coen quotes:

Dave Van Ronk, for those who don't know him - probably most don't know - was a folk singer. He's kind of the biggest person on the scene in 1961 in the folk revival in Greenwich Village, biggest person on the scene until Bob Dylan showed up.

Being non-commercial is never an ambition. Movies come together at different points for fortuitous reasons. You do them as you get the opportunity, as opposed to doing them when you choose to or design to.

There aren't reasons why you like this song or this piece of music, or don't like it. It's just, it's either right or wrong, you know?

I have never had feeling in my toes. My uncle, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, once told me in confidence he had the same syndrome, leading me to believe it is genetic.

Critics are usually kinder to cheaper movies than to those they perceive to be big Hollywood releases. They cut you a lot more slack if you spend less money, which makes no sense.

The mountain music... is compelling music in its own right, harking back to a time when music was a part of everyday life and not something performed by celebrities.

It's more interesting for me as an audience member to see a movie about a loser.

Like any kind of writing, there are good days and frustrating days. But even frustrating days can be rewarding sometimes.

We tend to do period stuff because it helps make it one step removed from boring everyday reality.

We wouldn't have done it if we didn't think we could have fun with it.

It's just an impulse, in some actors. You want to make the audience like you. That's the aim of the exercise.

I was always interested in movies the way everyone is interested. That is, I liked to go to the movies

You don't cast the animal, per se. You have an animal trainer who looks for several of them. That is a different experience than dealing with actors. That is just difficult. It is what you expect from an animal on the set. You just run a lot of film and prompt it to do the right thing, but sit through it doing all the wrong things first. It's just unbelievably boring, frustrating and painstaking to shoot.

When the movie's done, you talk about either the score or source music over a particular scene, what might work. You just throw a piece of music over the scene, and we both listen to it.