I just want to keep acting and better my craft and see how far it goes.

I left Somalia when I was seven years old, but I witnessed a whole year in a war.

I dont see myself only as a Somali character. I think of myself as an actor, and if the job fits me and I like the story, I will go for it.

It is weird. A lot of people try to ask me political questions. Im not a politician.

I was lucky enough to have parents that took me out from country to country and go to school and learn how to be a better person.

The line was originally, ‘Captain Phillips, get a load of me: fancy-free on the seven seas,’ but I ad-libbed.

When you work with a great director, you realise you are far from being a director.

God might work on mysterious ways, but hell worked on efficient ones.

There are many amazing female directors that made work in more skewed times, so we should be thankful for the boundaries they pushed through.

As the area of light expands, so does the perimeter of darkness.

I think good music makes you feel free, and if people feel free when they come to a show or listen to my music, that would mean the world to me.

When the story is good enough, people can watch something three times the length of an opera.

There is no life without death. That is the true meaning of yin and yang

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style

We'll be chopped up before you can say 'King Maggot'.

So long as you create laws that define women as victims, as creatures that demand protection, that need bodyguards, you are going to perpetuate the very worst of our sexist past.