Greater Quote 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

“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

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

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

An inner darkness is darker than an outer darkness.

— Ben Okri

The strange thing about Africa is how past, present and future come together in a kind of rough jazz, if you like.

— Ben Okri

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

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

— Ben Okri

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

— Ben Okri

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

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

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