My father taught me how to be a parent and gave me a positive connection with men because he is a gentleman.

There is strength in numbers.

If I say something about David [Bowie], I get 1000 tweets, if I say something about my business just a few! The more personal, the better.

I come from Somalia. We start working young, and we understand that kind of life. I would be bored to death not doing anything creative.

Make sure your decision to have a child is based on the need to share your life completely with another little human being and not because of some personal need for validation as a woman.

The one thing I know for a fact - some days are bad, some days are okay, and I'll go with it. If it's bad, I stay in and ride the wave and somehow, God gets me through and I'm fine. Dealing with grief doesn't work from one person to the other, it's so personal.

When 9/11 happened, 12 of our neighborhood firemen were killed. I looked around at the country that had adopted me and I became an American.