Berlin inspired Bowie and stirred him to write about real, important matters.

Eight months after graduating from Ryerson, there I was in West Berlin working with Marlene Dietrich and David Bowie and Kim Novak.

Berlin is all about volatility. Its identity is based not on stability but on change.

Before I met David Bowie, I was very nervous. I thought, 'Here comes the Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust. How will I ever communicate with him?'

Bricks and mortar Berlin has become a kind of network across which visitors and residents interact as if on some sort of comfortable global platform.

To me, Berlin is as much a conceit as a reality. Why? Because the city is forever in the process of becoming, never being, and so lives more powerfully in the imagination.