Elijah Wood

When I was in my 20s, I started frequenting record stores, and there was one in particular called Tropicalia in Furs in New York City. It's closed now, but it was one of those magical places where you would walk in, and the owner would start playing you records and not let you leave. It was such an education.

The approach of 'Game of Thrones' is similar to 'The Lord of the Rings' in that it treats its source material almost like history, and it focuses as much on the human drama as it does on anything fantastical.

So much time is wasted on trying to be better than others.

I don't fear death or ageing, but I fear them in other people that I am close to.

After 'Rings,' I had two feelings: One, I immediately didn't want to work on anything on a large scale. I wanted to work on something really small after I was finished filming the first three. But the other thing was that I had a continuing interest in working on things that were really different.

I just want to work on things that move me.

I was lucky in the sense that I started work very young but had a solid family base provided by my mother. She instilled a strong sense of perspective and humility in me from a very early age.