When people are infected by my charm, they don't see my size. My piercing deep blue eyes are distracting.
Peter Dinklage
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.
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.
Even 'Lord of the Rings' had dwarf-tossing jokes in it. It's like, 'Really?'
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.
Will Ferrell is just about the nicest guy - anyone can tell you that.
I have a friend who says, 'The world doesn't need another angry dwarf!'
I feel like life is much greater than a hero or a villain: there's good people that sometimes make mistakes.
I was once part of a Christmas cabaret. I sang 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.' I tap-danced. I had a ten-gallon hat. It was quite absurd.
As an adolescent, I was bitter and angry, and I definitely put up these walls.
I think if actors are successful at one thing, they paint themselves into a corner sometimes, and what's the fun in 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.
Dwarves are still the butt of jokes. It's one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice.
I am this guy who's four and a half feet tall, but my life doesn't constantly address it.
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.
People have the strangest ideas about dwarves.
I feel as much of a stud as... I can't come up with a metaphor. That's how lacking in studliness I am.
Fantasy novels, I don't really gravitate to that part of the bookstore.
I have a need to always make people laugh. I have a desperate need. I love a great sense of humor. The people I sort of surround myself with have that.
Being on television, playing the same character for many years, for me, I think that would get a little tedious.
I'm one of those who can't read the books after they've seen the movie.
The leads are often the boring part.
I'm always attracted to anti-hero roles.
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.
What I really want is to play the romantic lead and get the girl.
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.
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.
Each year, billions of animals are subjected to cruelty on factory farms, feed lots, and slaughterhouses. The brutality that these animals endure would be grounds for felony cruelty charges if inflicted upon our cats and dogs.
I'm a private person in many ways.
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.
I knew David Benioff a bit socially. I knew his wife, Amanda Peet. He's a smart guy, so I always sought him out at dinner parties.
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.
The greatest preparation for a TV show is to already have one season behind you.
I guess the word to call me is my name, Pete.
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.
Animals used for food are treated like unfeeling machinery.
I dress and eat like a fifth-grader, basically. I like sandwiches and cereal and hooded sweatshirts.
Call me a midget, but just be real. I am all for correct terms, but please don't tiptoe around feelings. Don't be too careful, because that shuts you off from people.
I would love to play Richard III.
There are a lot of directors out there who are very specific, visual craftsmen, and while I have the utmost respect for that, they don't really communicate with the actors.
I never know where women are coming from.
I love working with the same actors repeatedly. That happens a lot. It's kind of inevitable, especially if you work with the same writers and directors and you start to form a company of actors. You gravitate towards each other.
I don't socialize. I'm kind of a hermit. The life of an actor can be very lonely.
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.
'Game of Thrones' is an amazing show, and I have no problem speaking of the virtues of HBO.
I think my mom drove by a nuclear power plant when she was pregnant. But I wouldn't be in 'The Station Agent' if she hadn't.
I spend my nights just sitting and reading a book and drinking my tea and walking my dog. That's about as exciting as my life gets.
I was fortunate enough to have an upbringing that made me more accepting of who I am.
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.
