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.

I certainly hoped that in the Eastern part of Germany, what was just beginning to be called the German Democratic Republic, you would develop a system of socialism with freedom and democracy.

If you live in a system that is suppressive, you don't walk upright, you always go with your head down.

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

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.

The Wall was the actual symbol of a defeat, of inferiority.

A Western writer came up to me and said, how come nobody at this demonstration spoke of German unity? I told him, because it isn't on the agenda. People were interested in having another, better GDR, another, better socialism.