I learned that life will go through changes - up and down and up again. It's what life does. — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
Without stories we would go mad. Life would lose its moorings or lose its orientations. even in silence we are living our… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
I am one year older than Nigeria at 51. In a human life, 51 might be old. But it is very young… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
Maybe there are only three kinds of stories: those we live, those we tell, and those that help our souls fly upwards… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
I began my writing life as a poet, so poetry has always been fundamental. I evolved from poetry to journalism to stories… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
Home can be the friend you have been searching for all your life or the person you met once very briefly. — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
A man must be able to hold his drink because drunkenness is sometimes necessary in this difficult life. — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
The worst time was 1983. Love and life and everything went wrong. I reached absolute rock bottom. I saw the Minotaur at… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
I'm conscious of a series of circles working its way through my life. And at this particular moment I have come round… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
One human life is deeper than the ocean. Strange fishes and sea-monsters and mighty plants live in the rock-bed of our spirits.… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
Ghetto-dwellers are the great fantasists. There was an extraordinary vibrancy there, an imaginative life. When you are that poor, all you've got… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
Literature doesn't have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer. His Falstaff, for example, is very African in his appetite for life,… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
“We are victims of censorship within when we do not let ourselves think the thoughts which our flesh recoils from, or let… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
One of the greatest gifts my father gave me - unintentionally - was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity. We… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
I'm fascinated by the mysterious element that runs through our lives. Everyone is looking out of the world through their emotion and… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
“In a fractured age, when cynicism is god, here is a possible heresy: we live by stories, we also live in them.… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
We disliked the rigours of existence, the unfulfilled longings, the enshrined injustices of the world, the labyrinths of love, the ignorance of… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
The Nigerian storyteller Ben Okri says that ‘In a fractured age, when cynicism is god, here is a possible heresy: we live… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
Bad things will happen and good things too. Your life will be full of surprises. Miracles happen only where there has been… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
We never think that our mothers will die. It was like suddenly an abyss opened at my feet - I was standing on nothing.… — Ben Okri Copy Share
“In a fractured age, when cynicism is god, here is a possible heresy: we live by stories, we also live in them. One way… — Ben Okri Copy Share
The best writing is not about the writer, the best writing is absolutely not about the writer, it's about us, it's about the reader. — Ben Okri Copy Share
Maybe there are only three kinds of stories: those we live, those we tell, and those that help our souls fly upwards to a… — Ben Okri Copy Share
The earliest storytellers were magi, seers, bards, griots, shamans. They were, it would seem, old as time, and as terrifying to gaze upon as… — Ben Okri Copy Share
The strange thing about Africa is how past, present and future come together in a kind of rough jazz, if you like. — Ben Okri Copy Share
Our time here is magic! It's the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is… — Ben Okri Copy Share
Fire is one of my temperaments. It is behind all my work... Fire is a chemical presence. — Ben Okri Copy Share
I lived rough, by my wits, was homeless, lived on the streets, lived on friends' floors, was happy, was miserable. — Ben Okri Copy Share
If we could be pure dancers in spirit we would never be afraid to love, and we would love with strength and wisdom. — Ben Okri Copy Share
Without stories we would go mad. Life would lose its moorings or lose its orientations. even in silence we are living our stories — Ben Okri Copy Share
Literature doesn't have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer. His Falstaff, for example, is very African in his appetite for life, his largeness… — Ben Okri Copy Share
“So long as a canvas is empty its potential is infinite… The empty canvas can become a gateway into the landscape of nightmares or… — Ben Okri Copy Share
I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and Shakespeare. — Ben Okri Copy Share
