“We ought to step out of our old, hard casing. We think that we are one kind of people, when in fact… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
We can still astonish the gods in humanity And be the stuff of future legends, If we but dare to be real,… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
“I became my grief. I wept in advance for all the things that would happen, the unimaginable things beyond the horizon of… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And… — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
“Knowledge of self ought to be the great project of our lives. Knowing ourselves we will know others. Only by knowing ourselves… — 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
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Fire is one of my temperaments. It is behind all my work... Fire is a chemical presence. — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
I lived rough, by my wits, was homeless, lived on the streets, lived on friends' floors, was happy, was miserable. — Ben Okri Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
