Amadeus Mozart is to music something like Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was to literature. They are people who created something that nobody before them had. Absolute geniuses. You can recognize their harmonies among thousands.

My father read Günter Grass. He introduced me to German literature. I believe the first book I read by a German author was from Grass. After that, Thomas Mann accompanied me for a few years during my literature studies. I tried again and again to read the original German text, but I never really succeeded.

Post-modernism was the worst thing that could have happened to our democracy. The idea that you have to deconstruct and destroy all grand narratives is not a good one.

We can't start dividing people up into categories. In the past, France has often committed the error of not speaking to everybody because there was a belief that some countries could be neglected.

I believe we find ourselves in a period of radical transformation. Regardless of whether it is digitalization, the environment or terrorism. We can be successful in this new world. We have the necessary willingness. The French are inventive and innovative. But we need to finally pick ourselves up.

Look at me, the Front National got many more votes than the Alternative for Germany. Marine Le Pen ended up with 34 percent of the vote, 34 percent! I defended Europe, an open society and all my values. The Front National has been significantly weakened. In the debates, you don't hear anything from them anymore - because we engaged them in battle. Now is the time to be bold! The only answer to the Alternative for Germany is courage and ambition.

The function of president in France is one of significant symbolic value; it can't be compared with that of prime minister or cabinet member. Everything you do, everything you say - but also what you don't say - suddenly has meaning. That might sound quite formidable or even stressful, but I think it is a product of the history of this role.