Aidan Gillen

“I really like coming-of-age dramas. It's probably the most intense period in anyone's life, those years before you become an adult. Dramatically, there's so much to explore there. And it's nice to be around young talent coming through.”

“Every couple of years - no, that's every couple of weeks - I think I'm going to give up acting.”

“People say 'The Wire's bleak, y'know, but I see it as a love letter to Baltimore, and it's one written in a very strange and complex way.”

“I have been in control of what I've been doing, of the career I've put together.”

“In drama you can either pretend everything is OK, or you can show the world as it really is in the hope that it gets better.”

“There was a year between school and getting going as an actor when I basically just watched films. Video shops were the new thing, and there was a good one round the corner and me and my brother just watched everything, from the horror to the European art-house.”

“I'd quite like to do a musical. I'd probably have to develop that myself.”