Quotes from Barbara Sukowa

I've performed Schoenberg's 'Pierrot lunaire' many times.

I don't think there is such a thing as a German movie star. There are respected actors, but we are not publicized like TV people.

I never really caught on in America. I don't have an agent. It's too strange for me.

To make a movie about someone who is thinking and writing is scary. There's no big love story, no action, no drama. It's not an easy task.

We really love to learn and explore things.

Arendt did have a certain snobbishness, though in some of her writing she expressed more democratic attitudes.

We live in a world where we don't really hear ideas. We just hear propaganda. That's not just boring. It's also very dangerous.

They wanted me to do movies and television when I was very young, and it was a big temptation, but I really thought the only way I could learn the profession was on the stage.

I don't have a radio or TV going all the time. It's very important to have awareness, to know when you tense up and then to stop that.

I had to read Plato and Kant, and at times I was overwhelmed. But I have always been fearless, and so was Hannah Arendt. She wasn't afraid to speak out when she knew her opinions would not be popular because she believed in the public discourse above all.

I could imagine actually being a scientist or a detective, but not a detective who puts his hands into gory, bloody things. But more like someone who figures things out. I like to figure things out.

I think it's important for politicians to have moral qualities.

There was a time for German stars in the 1950s with Curt Jurgens, Hardy Kruger, O. W. Fischer, and Maria Schell. That was a totally different generation. It all ended in 1968 during the big students' movement in my country. It was an anti-authority movement that changed everything. All my country's hierarchies, morals and values were questioned.

In France and other European countries, film stars are more celebrated. In Germany, if we are good at what we do, we are respected but not acclaimed. And, of course, we are not paid like Americans are.

I was very lucky: I started acting in this highly subsidized German theater world, so there was not so much job insecurity. We had great working conditions, long rehearsal times, well paid.

I would like people to get a differentiated historical view of Germany.

I have so much respect for the big opera singers that I never dare to say I'm a singer.

When I auditioned for Tim Robbins for 'Cradle Will Rock,' the young girl who read with me was very young, and I said to Tim, 'I'm sorry, but I don't have enough imagination to pretend this girl is my husband!' And he said, 'Well, I'll read it with you.' Which was very nice; he was the director. And I ended up getting the part.

I had read Plato and Kant, but I had forgotten it.

I am what I am. I'm not going to get plastic surgery. I had this discussion with my younger son. We were at a dermatologist, and this dermatologist suggested to me that I wanted to avoid wrinkles. Those wrinkles show that I have laughed a lot in my life, why should I want to erase that? Why would I erase the traces of my life which I loved?

I always had acting work when I needed it. I think that is why, when I watch films or TV series in America, I find in small roles or in supporting roles really amazing faces, where I have the feeling these people have actually had a life outside of acting. I find it almost a pity that I've never done anything else.

You can only be a monster if people let you be a monster.

In Germany, of course, the Holocaust will always be in our history and a big stain on our lives.

Normally, if you play a part, you have the words, and you invent the personality out of your experience, your knowledge - your life, in a way.