Patrick Wilson's Quotes

There's just a natural instinct to want to be great, I think.

There's such an immediate intimacy with film that you just don't get in theater.

When I look at a character, whether he's good or bad, one scene or 10 scenes, I just have to find my way in.

When you're playing the good guy, you want to find the dirty parts - and when you're playing the bad guy, you want to find the vulnerability.

Yeah, I'm a spiritual person.

You don't ever see a thriller with a spiritual backbone.

You're defined by your older brothers' or sisters' music.

I like it when my wife is in her jeans, with very little makeup. But, I also appreciate the range - the different ways she can look. The moment she walks out all dressed up and... whoa! That's always good.

I try to do as many different roles as the system will allow me. That's the benefit of not being in a giant blockbuster where you're the lead and you get typecast in that kind of role. I am able to slip in or out of a lot of different parts.

I was convinced in middle school that I invented tight-rolling your pants, because I would get hand-me-downs from my brothers, and of course they were bell-bottoms from the '70s. So I would fold and fold over the bells. I like to think I started the trend. But I didn't.

I'm an actor who wants to do great parts, and I've been very fortunate, for a long time, to get meaty roles, and sometimes some of them are meatier than others.

If I ever get looks on the street, which, for the record, is almost never, it's rarely because they think I'm someone they saw in a movie. More often someone sees me and thinks, 'Hey, was that guy my waiter the other night?'

If somebody wants to go to church because they like the ritual of it and want to sit in silence for a while one time a week, then that's great. If someone wants to go because they believe that God them and Jesus rose after three days, then that's great, too.

The way you deal with a scare is the way you deal with a laugh. The timing has to be perfect. When you're dealing with fear or laughter - emotions that happen spontaneously - you hope it's working. But in the moment, you really have no idea.

There are a lot of Christian fundamentalists; there are a lot of Muslim extremists. Every religion - Mormonism - has something way on the side that's completely using the religion as some weird backbone for their twisted faith. It has nothing to do with their religion.

With actors like Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Harrison Ford, what made them such icons is that even in dramatic movies, their characters had a sense of humor.

You know when you see those guys and their sideburns are just a little too high? You don't need to have sideburns, but don't have to have them right above the ear. I knew a guy that did that in high school and I was like, 'What are you doing? Just let them down a little.'

I don't like being lied to.

A heroic nature is very Greek.

Emasculation does seem to be a theme in the roles that I choose.

For everybody that does something bad there's gotta be someone that does something good.

For me, I always have to establish a reality for the character. In very actor-y terms, you just have to understand his reality.

I am an avid runner, mainly on weekends.