More from Ben Okri
The worst realities of our age are manufactured realities. It is therefore our task, as creative participants in the universe, to re dream our world. The fact of possessing imagination means that everything can be re dreamed. Each reality can have it
Ben OkriBen Okri Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.
Ben OkriBen Okri Don’t neglect the gold in your own back yard.
Ben OkriBen Okri What hope is there for individual reality or authenticity when the forces of violence and orthodoxy, the earthly powers of guns and bombs and manipulated public opinion make it impossible for us to be authentic and fulfilled human beings?
Ben OkriBen Okri I know that human beings are capable of anything.
Ben OkriBen Okri You are a mischievous one. You will cause no end of trouble. You have to travel many roads before you find the river of your destiny. This life of yours will be full of riddles. You will be protected and you will never be alone.
Ben OkriBen Okri I’m conscious of a series of circles working its way through my life. And at this particular moment I have come round to the beginning of my writing cycle. It begins with poetry. There’s hardly a day that goes past on which I don’t write poetry.
Ben OkriBen Okri I learned that life will go through changes – up and down and up again. It’s what life does.
Ben OkriBen Okri This earth that we live on is full of stories in the same way that, for a fish, the ocean is full of ocean. Some people say when we are born we’re born into stories. I say we’re also born from stories.
Ben OkriBen Okri Destiny plans a different route and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn’t have expected.
Ben OkriBen Okri People are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves.
Ben OkriBen Okri 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 OkriBen Okri Wholeness is the enemy of the artist. We ought to be broken, ruined in some way.
Ben OkriBen Okri If you are working in an office, where do you find the time to write a novel? But you can finish a short story in five pages. Furthermore, a short story is a perfect place to learn the craft
Ben OkriBen Okri When you stop inventing reality then you see things as they really are.
Ben OkriBen 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 OkriBen Okri
Original quotes
From our community writers
Thoughts on a tapestry. Colour or black and white. A brush, a pen, A flash of light. Ideas flowing soon, about to take flight.
Gerard GleesonGerard Gleeson Like deep water, she was silent. His lips tasted of salt. He was both addicting and bitter all at once.
MoomerMoomer Always show kindness and love to others. Your words might be filling the empty places in someone else heart.
Alexander KandovAlexander Kandov And I would lie on your chest for hours and dream about the world in your arms but your thoughts were in another world.
Ani ShahverdyanAni Shahverdyan Your smile and your laughter lit my whole world.
Ranata SuzukiRanata Suzuki Often all we can do is breathe, even that can be hard sometimes.
Julia Kellogg HenryJulia Kellogg Henry I am addicted to your madness drunk on your toxic love. Infect me with your poison, lets make storms rage above.
Laura Natoli-KearneyLaura Natoli-Kearney The more you fail, recover, and improve, the better you are as a person.
Laura CleggLaura Clegg
Meet the writers
More on nothing
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow Of course, there is nothing wrong with the expansion to countries like Asia, China, Malaysia.
Mario AndrettiMario Andretti Nothing compares to the Indianapolis 500.
Mario AndrettiMario Andretti As if the ocean somehow doesn’t matter or is so big, so vast that it can take care of itself, or that there is nothing that we could possibly do that we could harm the ocean.
Sylvia EarleSylvia Earle It’s weird, but I don’t feel like think I deserve any of the attention. There’s really nothing but one audition for a Disney Channel movie that separates me from 2,000 other brown-haired, blue-eyed guys in L.A., you know?
Zac EfronZac Efron Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life.
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinPierre Teilhard de Chardin Nothing on this earth is standing still. It’s either growing or it’s dying. No matter if it’s a tree or a human being.
Lou HoltzLou Holtz Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.
Sylvia EarleSylvia Earle
