I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are.
“What is a historian, anyway? It is someone who uses facts to record the development of humanity.”
“My lord, I have some matter of law relating to the indictment, and I desire counsel to speak to it.”