Peter Dinklage
I am this guy who's four and a half feet tall, but my life doesn't constantly address it.
I've felt like an outsider. I've had to struggle.
Since I've joined 'Game of Thrones,' it's been such a pleasure.
I guess the word to call me is my name, Pete.
I think a lot of great male comic actors are introspective, quiet personalities, which I really admire. But they are really able to turn it up when the camera's on.
Being on television, playing the same character for many years, for me, I think that would get a little tedious.
I like playing the guy on the sidelines. They have more fun.
We're not environmentally doing very good things to this planet, and we might not be around too long.
I'm one of those who can't read the books after they've seen the movie.
I do not fault anyone else who makes choices to play characters that they wished they hadn't... Because at the end of the day, none of us are happy with our jobs all the time.
A lot of directors straight out of film school are very technically minded, but they don't have an understanding of actors or how to talk to them.
I'm on 'Game Of Thrones,' and every time we have someone new coming on our show, we welcome them with open arms and get revitalised by this new presence. Then we kill them off very quickly.
I have a big cynical side to me.
I was opposed to doing TV for a long time because I thought the quality of writing wasn't very strong, as opposed to film, but there's been a shift in term of the quality of scripts. HBO has attracted a tremendous amount of great writing talent.
If I was born 400 years ago instead of now, I wouldn't have the life I have. There were freak shows, and there was horrible discrimination.
George Martin is an incredible writer.
My brother, who's a violinist now, was the real ham, the real performer of the family. His passion for the violin is the only thing that kept him from being an actor.
Fantasy novels, I don't really gravitate to that part of the bookstore.
I should call people back more readily. I'm not the best friend sometimes in terms of that. I do follow that white balloon and get distracted a lot.
Sometimes, when the material is really good, you put expectations on yourself to make it the best possible show. You're not just serving up the regular hash and doing your job and going home.
I think 'No' is a very powerful word in our business that is very hard to use early on in your career. But I also think I was pretty arrogant when I was younger... I used that word maybe too much, but it did help me with finding roles that I did like.
'Game of Thrones' fans are the nicest people ever, but a thousand nice people coming at me gives me claustrophobia.
I never was a big comic book fan. Obviously I'd heard them growing up from my friends who did read them, but I never was a big comic book reader.
I'm a private person in many ways.
I dress and eat like a fifth-grader, basically. I like sandwiches and cereal and hooded sweatshirts.
I think everybody goes through changes, and the same should be said for fictional characters, especially ones that you follow on television.
I don't socialize. I'm kind of a hermit. The life of an actor can be very lonely.
I'm not going to play my violin, but with my dwarfism, I'm a bit of a mutant.
Friends don't care about issues like dwarf tossing.
Anybody who was in 'The Godfather' is a tough guy.
Will Ferrell is just about the nicest guy - anyone can tell you that.
Bad guys are complicated characters. It's always fun to play them. You get away with a lot more. You don't have a heroic code you have to live by.
I think with a lot of filmmakers, their first film is their best film because they had to think on their feet and solve problems with ingenuity.
The greatest preparation for a TV show is to already have one season behind you.
I saw a report on the news: 'Peter Dinklage tweeted... ' What? You know, I don't need any of that stuff. I got an email account; that's all I need.
I've been to Sundance before, but I'd never seen a lot of screenings.
There are wars being fought! Who cares what I'm doing on a Saturday night? I'm not even a celebrity.
I never know where women are coming from.
I'm recognized, let me put it that way.
I was born in 1969, believe it or not, so I was a child in the '70s.
I think actors get too comfortable. I like being uncomfortable as an actor because it keeps you alive. I don't know, I think it's important.
When people are infected by my charm, they don't see my size. My piercing deep blue eyes are distracting.
Sometimes on sets, I shut down, try to focus.
They'll say, 'Oh, he's sexy,' but women still go for guys who are 6ft 2 ins. I don't believe any of it for a minute.
With a lot of shows, what you'll see happen is they start off really well, and they're very original, but they become sort of a version of themselves. They stand outside the show... they become a cliche of the show they once were. That's the whole 'jumping the shark' thing.
Every person my size has a different life, a different history. Different ways of dealing with it. Just because I'm seemingly O.K. with it, I can't preach how to be O.K. with it. I don't think I still am O.K. with it. There's days when I'm not.
I would love to play Richard III.
I often don't see what I've done, or I cringe when I watch myself.
I just don't like boring myself. That's one of the main reasons I did 'Ice Age' - because I'd never done something like this before.