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.
“It's never over. You don't want to be in the position to be down four runs in the ninth inning, but it's not over until the last out.”
“The mainstream media showed, for example, no blood and guts resulting from the 9/11 attacks.”