Story Quotes by Ben Okri

9 Story quotes by Ben Okri

If you’re intrigued by the blend of myth and reality, Ben Okri’s nine selected quotes give a concise taste of his richly imagined, surreal storytelling style. They serve as a brief portal into the vivid worlds he creates.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.

Ben Okri

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

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

Image

The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story…

Ben Okri

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

Image

If you are working in an office, where do you find the time to write a novel? But you can finish a…

Ben Okri

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

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

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

Image

Other authors on Story

More by Ben Okri

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

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

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

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

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

Image

An inner darkness is darker than an outer darkness.

Ben Okri

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

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

Image

Fire is one of my temperaments. It is behind all my work... Fire is a chemical presence.

Ben Okri

Image

I lived rough, by my wits, was homeless, lived on the streets, lived on friends' floors, was happy, was miserable.

Ben Okri

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

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

Image

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