The people recognize themselves in their commodities they find their soul in their automobile hi-fi set split-level home kitchen equipment.

My real fantasy if I was to drop out would be to live in a mobile home and be a hippie and drive around festivals and have millions of children - children with dreadlocks and nose rings - and play the flute.

The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.

Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past present and future.

When I wonder what the future of books will be I often think about horses. Before automobiles existed everyone had a horse. Then cars became available and their convenience compared to horses was undeniable.

So the poet who wants to be something that he cannot be and is a failure in plain life makes up fictitious versions of his predicament that are interesting even to other persons because nobody is a perfect automobile salesman.

But as environment minister I am very interested in a thriving German automobile industry because I can only pay for the rising costs of environmental protection at home and abroad if there are people in Germany with jobs and who pay taxes.

Computers like automobiles and airplanes do only what people tell them to do.

I do two things. I design mobile computers and I study brains.

Today most young women are exposed to technology at a very young age with mobile phones tablets the Web or social media. They are much more proficient with technology than prior generations since they use it for all their school work communication and entertainment.