- People keep telling me, "You are bad at selling yourself." And I keep answering, "You are not quite right about that, I don't sell myself at all." I never did do that and and I never will.
- I'm not a guy like, say, Rudi Völler, who is well-liked by everyone. I am a goalkeeper.
- [after his 394th and last Bundesliga game] It's been fun, but it has also been a bit emotional because I realised: It's game over now.
- A goalkeeper who keeps on leaving his position and gesticulating will start getting regarded as ridiculous at one point. Acting like that will make the opposing team think 'Something about them is not quite right'.
- I wouldn't know what to talk about [with Oliver Kahn]. I don't have a 24 year old girlfriend, my life is completely different.
- One minute after a game ended I don't yet have the intelligence to evaluate that game.
- [about being regarded as arrogant] I believe that I am actually very humble. But sport is the only situation when I cannot permit myself to be.
- [Lehmann's stepson] Lasse is seeing his father regularly, and that's a good thing.
- [on whether there is a possibility of him moving back to Essen at one point] If a work-related opportunity arises in this area, my hometown would be likely where I would choose to reside. Then, a special circle would come full.
- [on England's claim that they produced the best goalkeepers in the world] Every country thinks that. The Germans think that, the Spanish think that and the Italians are also very proud of their keepers.
- As a goalkeeper you can't be selfish. You are the guy who has to throw his body against the ball because somebody else made a mistake 30 yards in front of you.
- [on whether there are corners of Essen which he especially likes] A lot of things in the south, this is where I grew up, this is where I feel local attachment. I still know the town quite well. I played on nearly all the football pitches there, after all.
- [on Matthias Sammer stating that it has always been more important for him to be respected, rather than loved, by fans, and whether Lehmann himself would agree with that] It is just as the coach said. This is saying everything about the importance of a player for the team, also within the team. For the team, a player who is being loved by the fans is only ever as important as a player who is being respected in the rarest of cases.
- [on the possibility of working as a player consultant at one point] I definitely wouldn't do it without having completed some kind of legal training. I think you simply need that in order to be able to do that kind of job well. But today [2001] I don't yet know how my life after football will develop. Maybe at one point I will depend on having a job like that, but I don't think there is much of a possibility of that happening.
- Sometimes goalkeepers over here [England] are not going to school long enough. When you are a goalkeeper you must hold your concentration level very high throughout 90 minutes, sometimes 120, sometimes 150. The best way to learn that is at school with academic focus on tasks. When you leave school at 16 you don't have it, you lose it. That's probably why the foreign goalkeepers are coming over. I know some of them and they are bright people, like Petr Cech and Edwin van der Sar.
- [on why, though he considers a career in coaching, he has no desire to be a specialist goalkeeping coach] After playing for 20 years, it would ruin my body. It's the kicking, kicking, kicking. As a normal coach it's mental pressure, mental demands.
- I think after [ending my career in] football I won't do anything at all for a bit, for maybe about two or three years. After that I will work completely normally. Let's just see what happens.
- Football is about entertainment. If you don't entertain, people don't want to see you. But the most important thing is to entertain by winning.
- During the years there have been some things where I didn't agree with his [Arsène Wenger's] opinion. That's why I'm not easy, because I questioned him about some decisions. When he left me out for example. When you make a decision you do not want to hear the player and you don't want him talking in the press. But sometimes it doesn't work like that. I just can't sit there for a whole year. The German press is on me, the English press is on me.
- I am never quite at ease in front of a camera. I am not that talented when it comes to that.
- The bottom line is that most people don't really understand what a good goalkeeper is - even coaches. Everybody thinks, 'Wow this guy is making great saves', but as a goalkeeper you think, 'This guy is really good but this guy, well, you never need to fear competition from him'.
- I didn't have a youth like those my friends had. I had to be home by half 10 in the evening, I then did some additional training for half an hour. I was quite good at school, but I never climbed the social ladder much when it came to the girls at my school. To not smoke, to not drink alcohol and to go home early wasn't cool. I didn't drink alcohol, parties were rare. They only just started by the time I went home! (laughs)
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