“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.

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

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.

I stay glued to my piano and my work. I don’t look up. I write, I produce, I do the next project, I do my job. I don’t look up, and I try to be kind. I try to be kind to people. That’s what I do.

Some actors, and especially the younger actors, they come into the job with a lot of attention on how they behave and everything when they’re not working.

politics … is the hottest, most dangerous subject in the land. It’s not only a conversation-wrecker, it’s a friendship-wrecker, a family-wrecker, a job-wrecker, a future-wrecker.

My jobs on campaigns were pretty low on the totem pole – I was an advance man.

I got along with people very well at every job I had, people liked me and I liked them and I loved being on my feet.

If you were out of a job and your kid needed diapers and your husband just left you, you would be so confused.

it used to be almost the first question (just after ‘Can you type?’) in the standard female job interview: ‘Are you now, or have you ever, contemplated marriage, motherhood, or the violent overthrow of the U.S. government?

I only began to sing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress.