“Qualifying is all about putting everything that you have and that the car has in one lap. It’s like a rush, I really enjoy that.”

It’s fantastic to be invited; I’m so happy. To represent Team Germany together with Michael Schumacher is a great honor.

I don’t care what other people think as long as I am happy.

Generally I don’t care about what people say. I have to be clear with myself.

As a driver, your target is always to be with the most competitive team possible.

You’re traveling all over the world but to be home is something special.

Of course, you always give 100 percent, but at a home race you’re always more motivated, simply because you feel at home.

I have always watched the Race of Champions on TV every year and dreamed about participating one day.

We have reason to feel good, but it’s also a threat to feel too good and I will pay attention that that doesn’t happen.

There are a few things that make me angry. Mostly things not going my way.

I come from an ordinary family – my dad is a carpenter, a roof-maker – and we’ve always loved racing together.

We always kept believing in ourselves and our team and the car.

It’s a tricky place, especially the last sector. I wasn’t happy in practice. I wasn’t happy with the car and I wasn’t happy with myself. But I always thought there was more in the car.

I didn’t know Dan Wheldon, but he was big in motorsport, and then this year I got to know Marco Simoncelli, so our thoughts are with them at the moment.

All these nice people saying I’m going to be world champion won’t make me any faster, you have to believe it yourself.

The bottom line is what we do might not be the safest so there is always some risk but we are ready to take that into account because we love racing and we love motor sports and it is dangerous.

At the end of your life, it’s friendships, emotions and thoughts that you take with you, rather than what’s in your bank account.

Young Baby Boomers were forced to play duck-and-cover in school, in hopes that a desk would protect them from an atomic explosion. It was all bullshit, and they knew it.

That went for the writers, too; they all had their own political leanings, and everybody had a voice. But the voices were mostly critical. It was social commentary, after all.

We made sure that we didn’t talk about India versus Pakistan but about the emotions of people on both sides and how terrorism affects us all.

I definitely believe that love conquers all, yes.

I’m present at all pyrotechnical rehearsals; and I walk through everything step-by-step.

Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one.

Since what happened in them was beyond the imagination, it was therefore also beyond art and all those human values on which art is traditionally based.

Prayer and encouraging words change things. We’re all human. We all go through stuff.