Even in West Germany in the beginning, people wanted a kind of socialism.

You must have, if socialism was to succeed, a socialism with lots of democratic elements in it.

I defended myself at the first opportunity I had, which was a meeting of writers in which I proved that Honecker had based his whole attack.

A foreman in the East wouldn't know how many workers he would have the next day, because part of his working force had left the system to go to West Germany.

In the question of peace, people spoke up and demonstrated for peace and against the threat of war, the threat of atomic war.

We certainly hoped perestroika would win out and that there would be changes. We knew all along that socialism could flourish only with a certain amount of freedom and democracy.

You had censorship. If you brought a manuscript to the publisher, you knew he would suggest changes. If you wanted to write and speak what you thought had to be written and spoken, you had to act against all these suppressive rules.