It's so different when you change your hair color you're treated so differently. It's a very funny experience. It's fun - I love changing up my hair.

I believe in a funny way the job of the novelist is to be out there on the fringes and speaking for an experience that has not really been spoken for.

But as I was saying from my experiences I think men tend to be more timid in expressing their feelings for you. Regardless I always prefer a friendship first and foremost.

My first experiences of academic friendship made me smile in after years when I looked back on them. But my circle of acquaintances had gradually grown so large that it was only natural new friendships should grow out of it.

No one who has lived even for a fleeting moment for something other than life in its conventional sense and has experienced the exaltation that this feeling produces can then renounce his new freedom so easily.

But on average I go to the gym about four or five times a week. Today I'm so experienced in training - I'm actually listening to my body now. My body needs freedom. When I train I create serenity and I produce oxygen in my blood. It helps me to think better and relax. By training you accentuate the problem.

The link between my experience as an entrepreneur and that of a politician is all in one word: freedom.

Japan is the most intoxicating place for me. In Kyoto there's an inn called the Tawaraya which is quite extraordinary. The Japanese culture fascinates me: the food the dress the manners and the traditions. It's the travel experience that has moved me the most.

I don't like to generalize but I've had nothing but bad experiences with Mexican food in Europe.

Take a trip to the forest and experience the greatness of getting on your knees and picking your own food and going home... and eating it.