Charles Laughton who's a great hero of mine only ever made one film and it happens to be one of the great films ever which is 'The Night of the Hunter.' It's full of his kind of imagination and creation and how you do things and just in the way he used the studio I just thought it was a fantastical way of using the studio.

They seem much rarer now those auteur films that come out of a director's imagination and are elliptical and hermetic. All those films that got me into independent cinema when I was watching it seem thin on the ground.

Maybe there's a chance to get back to grown-up films. Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.

I think films about men are often about characters who don't want to express their feelings. You're supposed to kind of admire them for not expressing their feelings. And I feel that's a bit dull. Women's stories often have stronger emotional content which I enjoy doing. What I really love doing is mixing that with humor.

Even if I went off to some other career I hope I would still be doing Coen films.

I don't feel despair because I am able to make the films I want to make and that gives me hope.

I think films have to reach people and really grab them. That's what I hope to do when I make a film - to get under your skin and really make you think about something and have a transporting time that takes you somewhere.

In between films I like to travel and hope to visit every continent before I become a mother.

When you're young you want to make every kind of film: musicals Westerns horror. Slowly you begin to hear your own voice. I hope people receive what I do as small personal films that are somewhat contrarian about their main characters.

I don't want to make films that give you the answer. If there is a message to my films - and I hope there isn't - it's to be open-minded.