There are specific times where film noir is a natural concomitant of the mood. When there's insecurity, collapse of financial systems - that's where film noir always hits fertile ground.

I'm a very circumspect and prudent person, and I eliminate danger as far as it can be done.

Of course, as a German, I wouldn't like to tell the American people how to handle their criminal justice.

You have to be completely open to what people would tell you. You do not shape them; you do not force the materials into your ideas. You have to have all windows and doors open.

It's curiosity, and always a sense of poetry. You see it in particular in the chapter "Iceland" where I'm reciting ancient Icelandic poetry. It has this very beautiful gravitas in conjunction with the volcanoes.

Only the poets can hold the country together, and I wanted to hold Germany together.

Every man should pull a boat over a mountain once in his life.