"I worked hard at German so that I could read Brecht, but was saved by watching his plays performed live at Mannheim by an excellent company. However, it was Marc Blitzstein’s 1954 translation of Threepenny Opera in a tiny theater off-Broadway that electrified me with “Mack the Knife” and “Pimp’s Ballad.”"

"Of course I was Becky Thatcher from age five to 10 and switched to Huckleberry at 13 because he had all the fun. And before I ever set foot in Heidelberg in the 1950s, Twain’s Tramp held my hand when our American twangs were ridiculed by speakers of that awful German language."

"This film is another touchstone for me, and I have based several paintings on it (as well as on many other films on my list). Toulouse, France, during the German occupation. A very odd romance blooms between the mismatched young couple. Aurore Clément is fabulous. Pierre Blais died soon after. Great Django Reinhardt soundtrack."

"The film that restored grace and poetry to Berlin and the German language after forty years of stereotypical war movies featuring stereotypical German actors playing the parts of stereotypical Germans. The fog of war had settled over Birmingham when I came along in 1960, and there was no moving it for some time. Nothing about Germany was to be trusted, as even its postwar art was tainted by the events surrounding the Holocaust, unsurprisingly. But I was glad when this movie came along, despite the awful history of the twentieth century, as it allowed me to love Germany for what it is now, its language, the sound of its spoken word and all its formidable arts. Wim Wenders must surely be Germany’s greatest living director."

"I love the whole BRD trilogy for Fassbinder’s truthful rendering of the German psyche after World War II devastation and post–Marshall Plan de-Nazification, and for the great parts that he offered to his female actors. Being a teenager in the fifties, in Germany, I left for Paris to avoid being sucked into the materialistic obsession displayed here."