Quotes

[As someone from Stuttgart, did you ever speak the Swabian dialect?] In a terribly strong fashion. [How did you get rid of it?] Only with a lot of difficulties. The Swabian as such is generally taciturn and if he is required to speak standard German, to him it's as if he has to learn a new language. All of a sudden he is supposed to pronounce the endings of words. This scares him and so he withdraws into mumbling. It was a long way until I even dared to speak standard German.

In a lot of cases these environments [the 70s, Swabia, yearning feelings while living in rural areas, religion and the limitedness of it all] also exploded eventually. A lot of people from terrorist groups came from environments like these. It's just that I was completely different. A good boy who wanted to measure up to the expectations there were. On the other hand I had, probably thanks to my mother, the guts to take risks. To not follow everything blindly, but to find my own way.

[Originally you wanted to become a music therapist which sounds a bit like a woman's man...] Does it? Ok, this wish originated when I was 15 and affiliated with a sort of club via the church, as leader of a youth group, Jungschar is what they were called back then. I didn't do devotions with them. Instead, I tried to give them an understanding of caring social behavior. We went on holidays together, played football, made music. I always had my guitar with me. And so I thought you can join these two things together, the music and the social aspect.

I don't want to be part of the living room furniture anyway, becoming famous is not my goal.

I watched the first season of Homeland in one go, within two days. Then I stopped. Because it is simply addictive - and I detest addictions. I am already addicted to nicotine. But addicted to TV series - no.

[on the possibility of him moving to Hollywood] Oh no, that much sun and good mood wouldn't really be my thing in the long run, with that body culture and all that organic food.

Cinema is the queen of arts, it's a feast for the senses. It's a wonderful appointment: You buy a ticket, sit down in a darkened room and let yourself be carried away.

I conclude that we are living in paradise. We are there. We may be a little too cerebral to perceive it, to protect it and to handle it well. But the conditions are there and they are excellent.

[about his series "Your Honor"]: Judge Jacobi's actions are for me in many ways a mirror of our society, I would almost say a reflection of the present world situation. He stumbles from one catastrophe into the next, without any emergency brake in sight purely because he is driven by the infinite love for his son. This is the main impetus for this story. Being personally forced to confront a situation that is actually hopeless.

I grew up very Christian and was also very active in church as a young guy. At some point, though, that structure started to falter a lot, and then I left the church in my mid-20s. There was too much guilt for me, too much paradise in the next life, and the alien idea that mankind is supposed to be the crown of creation.

I think you have to think forgiveness the other way around. One not only accommodates the other person, but first of all oneself. Because forgiveness frees one from the negative system of the guilty. You can pull yourself out of it. You can redeem yourself. That would be at least a beginning