This earth that we live on is full of stories in the same way that, for a fish, the ocean is full… — 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
Artists and writers have to deal with the element that makes the real real and the dream real while you are dreaming… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
To see the madness and yet walk a perfect silver line. ... That's what the true story-teller should be: a great guide,… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the… — 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
Beware of the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
The greatest stories are those that resonate our beginnings and intuit our endings, our mysterious origins and our numinous destinies, and dissolve… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself. Beware of the storytellers who are not… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
You see, I was told stories, we were all told stories as kids in Nigeria. We had to tell stories that would… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
A people are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick. Without stories we… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
It is easy to forget how mysterious and mighty stories are. They do their work in silence, invisibly. They work with all… — 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
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
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
