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Ben Okri Quotes

29 Famous Quotes By Ben Okri

Famous As: Distinguished Nigerian Poet and Novelist Who Won Booker Prize for His Novel ‘The Famished Road’

Born On: 1959

Born In: Minna, Nigeria

Age: 65 Years

Ben Okri is a distinguished Nigerian novelist and poet who is considered as one of the top-notch African authors in the post-colonial and post-modern traditions. He has been compared to authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie. Okri is considered to be Africa’s ruling writer who shot to with his first novel ‘Flowers And Shadows’. Since then he has risen to international recognition. Some of his notable works include, ‘Songs Of Enchantment’, ‘The Famished Road’, ‘The Infinite Riches’, ‘Dangerous Love’ and ‘The Age of Magic’. His renowned essays, poetries and short-stories include, ‘Birds Of Heaven’, ‘Wild’, ‘Stars Of The New Curfew’, ‘Tales Of Freedom’ amongst others. Following is a corpus of thoughts, viewpoints and opinions that the prolific writer has shared through his writings, novels, poems, essays, novels, work and life. Let us browse through the quotes and sayings by Ben Okri and get a glimpse of his creative mind.

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

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

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.

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.
Love
Ben Okri

This is what you must be like. Grow wherever life puts you down.

This is what you must be like. Grow wherever life puts you down.
You Life Like
Ben Okri

The law is simple. Every experience is repeated or suffered till you experience it properly and fully the first time.

The law is simple. Every experience is repeated or suffered till you experience it properly and fully the first time.
You Experience Time
Ben Okri

We can redream this world and make the dream come real. Human beings are gods hidden from themselves.

We can redream this world and make the dream come real. Human beings are gods hidden from themselves.
Ben Okri

A dream can be the highest point of a life

A dream can be the highest point of a life
Life
Ben Okri

Don't neglect the gold in your own back yard.

Don't neglect the gold in your own back yard.
Ben Okri

What you see is what you make. What you see in a people is what you eventually create in them.

What you see is what you make. What you see in a people is what you eventually create in them.
You
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.

If we could be pure dancers in spirit we would never be afraid to love, and we would love with strength and wisdom.
Love Never
Ben Okri

To see the madness and yet walk a perfect silver line. ... That's what the true story-teller should be: a great guide, a clear mind, who can walk a silver line in hell or madness.

To see the madness and yet walk a perfect silver line. ... That's what the true story-teller should be: a great guide, a clear mind, who can walk a silver line in hell or madness.
Ben Okri

Don't read what everyone else is reading. Check them out later, cautiously.

Don't read what everyone else is reading. Check them out later, cautiously.
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

Without stories we would go mad. Life would lose its moorings or lose its orientations. even in silence we are living our stories
Life Living
Ben Okri

A man must be able to hold his drink because drunkenness is sometimes necessary in this difficult life.

A man must be able to hold his drink because drunkenness is sometimes necessary in this difficult life.
Life
Ben Okri

We have not yet arrived, but every point at which we stop requires a re-definition of our destination.

We have not yet arrived, but every point at which we stop requires a re-definition of our destination.
Ben Okri

I held you in the square
And felt the evening
Re-order itself around
Your smile.

I held you in the square And felt the evening Re-order itself around Your smile.
You I
Ben Okri

Who knows, maybe this whole planet is an asylum, a penal realm. A place for hard cases.

Who knows, maybe this whole planet is an asylum, a penal realm. A place for hard cases.
Ben Okri

An inner darkness is darker than an outer darkness.

An inner darkness is darker than an outer darkness.
Ben Okri

He had to learn how not to let his eyes be bewildered by manifestations, and thereby learn to treat appearances as signs and codes of the interior.

He had to learn how not to let his eyes be bewildered by manifestations, and thereby learn to treat appearances as signs and codes of the interior.
Ben Okri

A tolerable hell is better than an impossible heaven.

A tolerable hell is better than an impossible heaven.
Ben Okri

If I don't say the thought right I might destroy it.

If I don't say the thought right I might destroy it.
I
Ben Okri

So long as a canvas is empty its potential is infinite… The empty canvas can become a gateway into the landscape of nightmares or a vision of sensual bliss.

So long as a canvas is empty its potential is infinite… The empty canvas can become a gateway into the landscape of nightmares or a vision of sensual bliss.
Ben Okri

We ought to step out of our old, hard casing. We think that we are one kind of people, when in fact we are always creating ourselves. We are not fixed. We are constantly becoming, constantly coming into being.

We ought to step out of our old, hard casing. We think that we are one kind of people, when in fact we are always creating ourselves. We are not fixed. We are constantly becoming, constantly coming into being.
Think
Ben Okri

But to hear Mozart in a bombed city: how much more beautiful it sounds, as if it were composed to somehow soothe the ruins, to promise a wiser future rising from the rubble.

But to hear Mozart in a bombed city: how much more beautiful it sounds, as if it were composed to somehow soothe the ruins, to promise a wiser future rising from the rubble.
Future Beautiful
Ben Okri

Storytellers ought not be too tame. They ought to be wild creatures who function adequately in society. They are best in disguise. If they lose all their wildness, they cannot give us the truest joys.

Storytellers ought not be too tame. They ought to be wild creatures who function adequately in society. They are best in disguise. If they lose all their wildness, they cannot give us the truest joys.
Ben Okri