[on fleeing the GDR] I only looked ahead. The loss of family, friends, home - I didn't think about this in that moment.
[As a child] I wanted to become a trash collector.
[on his military service] You leave your brain at the entrance and hope it won't get damaged in the meantime.
[on not completing his training as a bank clerk] Bookkeeping bored me to death.
[admitting he drank a lot of beer and vodka as a student] Drugs didn't exist in the GDR, after all.
When I was 18 I wore bleached blond hair and a perm. Back then, that was the latest craze.
I try to stay active and eat healthily, I don't smoke and I rather rarely drink alcohol. This might sound like abstinence now but I am no ascetic.
In regards to women, I was a late bloomer even by the standards back then. Everything else also took its time. For a long time, it was more like I was in a relationship with the football ground.