I was lucky to start working when German cinema was having an interesting moment. Now the quality is going downhill again because they're insisting on doing comedies. We should know by now that we make good cars but we're not the funniest people.

I'm always nervous doing auditions - to be honest, I hate it. I always envy the actors who are so cool and cold-blooded when they go in for an audition, especially if it's for a part that you would really love to play.

Happiness is the enemy. It weakens you, puts doubts in your mind. Suddenly, you have something to lose.

If you play a real character who's famous and still alive, it makes things easier if you have the luck to have a good relationship with them.

I was lucky to start working when German cinema was having an interesting moment. Now the quality is going downhill again because they're insisting on doing comedies. We should know by now that we make good cars but we're not the funniest people.

I would love to spend a year living in New York; I've wanted to do that since I was 18. I'll be really disappointed if I'm 50 and haven't done something like that.

The key is to let computers do what they are good at, which is trawling these massive data sets for something that is mathematically odd. And that makes it easier for humans to do what they are good at - explaining those anomalies.