Patricia Clarkson quotes:

New Orleans. Born and raised. I lived there until I was 19.

The odds are not in your favor the older you get, especially if you're a woman in this business.

If my gravy train stops at SAG, honey, it's been a great ride.

And I have a really great agent and I know it's almost an oxymoron to say you have a smart agent. But she is and she has a beautiful aesthetic and she has guided me.

That's the hardest part of acting: when it is ultra-personal, when it is deeply personal, and there's no lying involved. You can't fake it, you can't get by it. This is dealing with the most primal instincts and emotions that a mother can have.

Holly Hunter has been doing great work forever.

I love writers. All of my best friends are writers.

I think it would be hard to go the distance in this business without a sense of humor.

I'm really a director's actor. I rely heavily on a director.

I have to watch the news or my day is not complete.

I like to think of myself as a free spirit. I've never married. I'm not conventional in that way. But I do like romance. I've been fortunate enough that I've had great love, and I've dated remarkable men in my life. I'm very thankful for all of that.

I don't like a lot of rehearsing.

I think it's always harder in a film to convey intimacy.

I'm obsessed. I've always needed to know what's going on but now it's a must.

I always try to approach character first and foremost viscerally.

I'm still traumatized that I'm going to be on a big screen in a white bikini and naked so who knows!

You're always close and you never get that big romantic lead.

But no, had I been successful in my 20s I would have been just fine. But it is nice to defy the odds.

I just have a thing for writers. Maybe it because I'm just so not a writer.

But I have had the luxury of working on good films with great people.

Even though I'm a free spirit, I like to keep my friends and my lovers separate. I have extraordinary friends, but I don't want to see them naked.

I have stunning friends. I value my friendships as I value my family.

I think it kind of took being a character actor to kind of now enter into leading ladies.

I'll read a script maybe twice, but I'll think about the role more than I'll rehearse lines.

See, the SAG awards caught me totally by surprise.

The majority of work I do is in independent films, where you're lucky if you have five takes.

Why are comedic parts for women the exception, not the rule?

Talent is a very potent aphrodisiac. When someone is incredibly gifted, I find them incredibly sexy.