Aaron Pedersen

“I don't know, usually I'm wearing costumes and hats of other characters: to ask me to be Aaron and walk through the country was a great honour, and a great opportunity.”

“I never said I want to be an actor. I just went quietly, quietly, I'm going to do this myself, so I chose the journey in my own way.”

“Obviously people loved 'Mystery Road', people loved the storytelling aspect of it, people liked the character.”

“I think we need to take time out in our lives to realign ourselves with country, to realign ourselves with what we have and the beauty of what we have. I think we've all just got caught up in this way of life that doesn't allow us to be intimate with it any more.”

“Carers are important. They are the unsung heroes.”

“We don't want to share our personal problems or personal journey, it's too private - but we should be proud to be carers; it's hard work, it's true work, it's unconditional love.”

“All the Indigenous paintings throughout history, they were always a bird's eye view, it's the Indigenous way of storytelling.”

“Maybe I'm a damaged man. I think we're all damaged in some ways. When I was younger I never thought I had any way of breaking through the hardships.”

“I've a secret desire to be a tradie really. I wouldn't mind taking time out to do a carpentry course.”

“Uncle Jack Charles and his mob, I wouldn't have a career if it wasn't for their persistence. They worked hard at a time when no one took them seriously and no one even considered indigenous roles as a mainstream option.”

“I'm not going to complain about playing a cop, there's a cop in every country town in this place. Policing the world and the community is a difficult job, because you get it wrong some times. I couldn't do it for real.”

“I make sure I have a smile every day for everybody because our stories within it have a darkness and we don't need to bleed it into real life because people have got their own issues going on. So I'd always come in and be the biggest idiot on set.”

“I love comedy, and I'd love to do more of it, but I end up with the work I end up with.”

“I always remind myself that my audience is human. Therefore we have to be human, play human, reveal the humanness of who we are. Audiences gravitate towards that.”

“From afar, we know we have a great land, dominated by so many different forms of terrain, and we've got amazing and unique animals, and the climate, the beauty and the brutality of it. But I think the detail, and the intimate element of it, I think we're kind of a little bit lost on it.”

“I'm not going to be precious about the fact that I'm not getting all these other particular roles because there's nothing wrong with the ones I'm getting. It doesn't matter if I play cops for the rest of my life. That's called a career.”

“I've always said I was born in the storm. I just had to find a way out of it, find the clearing, and believe the clouds would blow away and the darkness would become something else.”

“I grew up in a number of homes and I grew up without a lot of structure. I understand now that damage is part of the journey. Heartbreak. Loss. Gain.”

“I just love country. It just felt like that's the place to go and live life.”

“I always say 'my career started with Cate Blanchett.'”