Phyllis Smith

Everybody wants to shine a little bit, even a wallflower.

In my heart, my first desire was to be a dancer. I always wanted to dance and I danced from the time I was 7 till I was well into my 30s.

As a dancer, one of my many teachers along the way made the comment that who I was onstage and who I was off were two totally different people.

For years, I've been interviewed, and they write what they thought I thought or what they thought I said. Sometimes it's accurate, and often it isn't.

Under the previous regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, I was detained. So was my wife, Serkalem Fasil. She gave birth to our son in prison in 2005.

I'd date someone younger or older; age doesn't matter to me. Or looks, really - it's all about maturity.