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

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.

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

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.

What I believe will make my acting career successful going forward is hard work. I like to challenge myself. Then it’s the people I meet and choosing the projects I want to work on correctly. There’s a lot of characters I can play.

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

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

What is important is that a political party articulates the mood of a generation.

What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths – half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. They paraded before us as informed opinion.

Without a movement pressing for change, there’s little hope. We’ve got to work the political system to make this happen fast. The physics and chemistry are daunting. The resources on the other side are very large.

A statesman is any politician it’s considered safe to name a school after.

Look at writer and political theorist Charles Maurras in France. The philosopher Martin Heidegger in Germany. The radical Islamists of today!

I’m not consumed with political machinations.

The prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. But we don’t want to see this turned into some great political football

The Republicans may be better off without an agenda. They don’t scare people.