Ben Okri Quotes

Nigerian - Poet Born: March 15, 1959

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering. Ben Okri

Love, Inspirational, Suffering, Create

I learned that life will go through changes - up and down and up again. It's what life does. Ben Okri

Life, Down, Go, Changes, Will, Up

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 great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It's the only space. Ben Okri

Inspirational, Beautiful, Time, Great

The greatest religions convert the world through stories. Ben Okri

World, Religions, Through, Greatest

Reading is an act of civilization; it's one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities. Ben Okri

Mind, Reading, Free, Civilization, Act

The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell. Ben Okri

Perfection, Imperfection, Story, Human

I became a sceptic of one way of seeing the world. And I think it is what started me in my awareness that any worldview is superstitious. Ben Okri

Me, Think, World, Way, Seeing, Awareness

When you can imagine you begin to create and when you begin to create you realize that you can create a world that you prefer to live in, rather than a world that you're suffering in. Ben Okri

Live, Imagination, Suffering, World, You

One of the greatest gifts my father gave me - unintentionally - was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity. We had a bit of a rollercoaster life with some really challenging financial periods. He was always unshaken, completely tranquil, the same ebullient, laughing, jovial man. Ben Okri

Life, Father, Man, Courage, Adversity

We never think that our mothers will die. It was like suddenly an abyss opened at my feet - I was standing on nothing. It was the strangest thing. Her passing away ripped the solidity out of the world. Ben Okri

Think, World, Die, Feet, Never, Nothing

The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing. Ben Okri

Attention, Doing, Politician, Away, Our

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

Work, Fire, Presence, Behind, Chemical

Politics is the art of the possible; creativity is the art of the impossible. Ben Okri

Politics, Art, Creativity, Impossible

I believe in leavening. You can't have words sticking out too much, like promontories. They disturb the density. You have to flatten them, or raise the surrounding terrain. Ben Okri

Words, Believe, You, Too Much, I Believe

Reading, like writing, is a creative act. If readers only bring a narrow range of themselves to the book, then they'll only see their narrow range reflected in it. Ben Okri

Book, Reading, Creative, Writing, See

We have fallen into this very mean description of humanity. Naturalism in fiction is too reductive in its definition of human beings. Ben Okri

Humanity, Human, Mean, Fiction, Very

You see, I was told stories, we were all told stories as kids in Nigeria. We had to tell stories that would keep one another interested, and you weren't allowed to tell stories that everybody else knew. You had to dream up new ones. Ben Okri

You, New, Dream, See, Tell, Up

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

Happy, Friends, Homeless, Streets, Rough

I was going to be a scientist. Ben Okri

Going, Scientist

I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and Shakespeare. Ben Okri

Home, Me, London, Literature, Because

Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide. Ben Okri

Art, Hide, Magic, Nothing, Becomes

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

Heart, Fear, You, Conquer, Know, Make

Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret. Ben Okri

Beautiful, Best, You, See, Always

The higher the artist, the fewer the gestures. The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination. The greater the will, the greater the secret failure. Ben Okri

Failure, Imagination, Artist, Tools

The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot be made into law. And so these legislators police the accepted frontiers of things. Ben Okri

Police, World, Law, Wonder, Dislike

I was born left-handed, but I was made to use my other hand. When I was writing 'Famished Road,' which was very long, I got repetitive stress syndrome. My right wrist collapsed, so I started using my left hand. The prose I wrote with my left hand came out denser, so later on I had to change it. Ben Okri

Change, Stress, Road, Long, Writing, Out

Biography

Nationality: Nigerian

Type: Poet

Born: March 15, 1959

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