The feeling of self-discovery, for me, is perennial.

The stories of kids who grew up in communities like mine weren't being written about in many books for kids.

I'm writing all the books I wish I had when I was a kid.

All I want kids to know is that I see them for who they are and not who everyone thinks they are.

I've spent months living in Africa and India. So it's not like I was sheltered when I started living in America. But my family laughed when they heard I was going to be in 'Transformers.' I learned a lot and got to experience Michael Bay's mayhem. It was a very colorful experience.

At some point, I realized that you don't get a full human life if you try to cut off one end of it; that you need to agree to the entire experience, to the full spectrum of what happens.

The truth is nobody was a Muslim until Public Enemy came out. Then, everybody was Muslim this and Muslim that. It's a bandwagon thing. Islam is a way of life... it's a religion. It's not just something you put on a record.

Empathy begins with understanding life from another person's perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It's all through our own individual prisms.