I only have a Bachelor's Degree but I've had professors who have instilled this kind of academic rigor in me where I don't make any generalizations or closed statements. There always has to be room for interpretation.

I've been exploring gender performativity in the Gulf since I was a teenager. I'm not a gender anthropologist, but I feel like there's an extreme binary between femininity and masculinity in the Gulf. From a young age, I knew I didn't want to be part of it. Gender is a huge gray area, and the problem with defined roles is that they cover up undefined ones.

I was one of five out of 100 people who passed the test, which just proved to me how little Americans are taught geography.

I still think you people need to be curious [in order to absorb the culture]. You need to search Uzbekistani pop music.

There are very few pop people I'm interested in working with.

For instance, members of the elite will never allow their children to become musicians normally, because it's - not embarrassing - but it's not done. There's a very famous composer from the '70s from a well-known family that disowned him, and he's a man, so there's this historical precedence with their relationships with musicians - not so much music as it's this abstract thing - but externally with artists.

I'm fascinated by evil queens. They're very alluring and repellent at the same time, and I'm into that dichotomy.