The only way I see the world now is through coming out of and growing up and living in Somalia. In the time of war, everyone was basically trying to live and manage the best they could. But you also had another period which was not a hard time at all - it was just a beautiful time. I lived in both eras.

To reach your goal authentically is probably, in the end, going to mean much more to you than having reached it in a false way.

I'm writing from a place of - a center of authenticity, somewhere that only I know how to write from.

It was not my dream to be an artist. How could it have been? I thought, artist, much like a leader, was something you either were or weren't. Never something you set out to be.