As an adolescent, I was bitter and angry, and I definitely put up these walls.
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 like the busted-nose look. I think it's a good look for me.
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.
Anything that opens up people's perceptions a bit is good.
Sometimes on sets, I shut down, try to focus.
I am this guy who's four and a half feet tall, but my life doesn't constantly address it.
It is hard working with animals, I've got to say.
Women on the whole are often not as shallow as men are. They can be, but they cut through things a little more easily than men do in terms of that superficial stuff.
'Game of Thrones' fans are the nicest people ever, but a thousand nice people coming at me gives me claustrophobia.
You'd be surprised how condescending people can be.
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.
That's one of the things about theater vs. film - with theater, actors have a little more control, and one of the disappointing things about films is that once you're done shooting, anything can happen, you know?
I like animals, all animals. I wouldn't hurt a cat or a dog - or a chicken or a cow. And I wouldn't ask someone else to hurt them for me. That's why I'm a vegetarian.
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.
What I really want is to play the romantic lead and get the girl.
People's personalities get tweaked at weddings.
My mother was an elementary school teacher for 35 years and taught at the Nixon School in New Jersey. I was raised as a very liberal Democrat, and she was protesting Nixon when he was in office.
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 think everybody goes through changes, and the same should be said for fictional characters, especially ones that you follow on television.
Any swagger is just defense. When you're reminded so much of who you are by people - not a fame thing, but with my size, constantly, growing up - you just either curl up in a corner in the dark or you wear it proudly, like armor or something. You can turn it on its head and use it yourself before anybody else gets a chance.
'Star Wars' or 'The Lord of the Rings' deal with great big Joseph Campbell-style myths, good and evil.
I guess the word to call me is my name, Pete.
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.
I have a big cynical side to me.
Jen Lawrence is quite a fan of 'Game of Thrones.'
I've been to Sundance before, but I'd never seen a lot of screenings.
The reason I like 'Breaking Bad,' which is still probably my favorite show, is Walter White. You watch him transform, and that's so fascinating. And I think. a lot of TV shows that aren't successful, it's because the characters become stagnant.
I'm not going to play my violin, but with my dwarfism, I'm a bit of a mutant.
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.
We, as Americans, at least - I mean, I love my country - but we're so self-righteous sometimes, in terms of, like, our nationality, our country. But we're people from somewhere else; the true 'Americans' are the original peoples. It's funny, but we're a very territorial species.
Maybe in my 20s I was a little more lively. But I'm done with that.
Fantasy novels, I don't really gravitate to that part of the bookstore.
I don't socialize. I'm kind of a hermit. The life of an actor can be very lonely.
I don't like people being cautious and tentative and choosing their words carefully around me because I'm a dwarf.
I'm a private person in many ways.
I would love to play Richard III.
A lot of parts written for people of my size, dwarfs, are either foolish idiots or, like, these sages that are all-knowing, and they're very, sort of, come-to-them-for-answers.
My favourite superhero? I have a soft spot for Batman, because he doesn't have any super powers - he's just a person. And he's pretty dark.
You want your privacy as a human being.
I dress and eat like a fifth-grader, basically. I like sandwiches and cereal and hooded sweatshirts.
Women respond to comfort and a sense of humor. I was always able to make them laugh, so that helps a lot.
I just think the less you know about an actor, the more serious you'll take them as an actor because they will disappear a little bit.
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 friend who says, 'The world doesn't need another angry dwarf!'
I was a sullen kid who smoked cigarettes and wore black every day, and I went to a school that was lacrosse players and Izods.
So I won't say I'm lucky. I'm fortunate enough to find or attract very talented people. For some reason I found them, and they found me.
Does anybody actually go out in L.A.? When I lived there, I'd just stay in my apartment.
