One human life is deeper than the ocean. Strange fishes and sea-monsters and mighty plants live in the rock-bed of our spirits.
BEN OKRIIn the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.
More Ben Okri Quotes
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To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself. Beware of the storytellers who are not fully conscious of the importance of their gifts, and who are irresponsible in the application of their art: they
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What you see is what you make. What you see in a people is what you eventually create in them.
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Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the individuals and nations.
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Success will never confuse you of scatter your spirit, but will make you fly higher into the good sunlight. Your life will always surprise you.
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An inner darkness is darker than an outer darkness.
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I know that human beings are capable of anything.
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There is a kind of expressed love which is easy to subvert. When a figure is loved for their deeds, their conquests, their heroism, their goodness, their love of the people, these are easy enough to destroy… But there is a kind of love which is felt for apparently no reason…
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Creativity is the art of the impossible
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Who knows, maybe this whole planet is an asylum, a penal realm. A place for hard cases.
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Bad things will happen and good things too. Your life will be full of surprises. Miracles happen only where there has been suffering. So taste your grief to the fullest.
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When chaos is the god of an era, clamorous music is the deity’s chief instrument.
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This is what you must be like. Grow wherever life puts you down.
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We have fallen into this very mean description of humanity. Naturalism in fiction is too reductive in its definition of human beings.
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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
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There ought to be three traditions in the art of humanity: the realistic, the visionary and the wild.
BEN OKRI