I am not fighting for success, just to get more beauty out of myself and share it with more people.
Author
Ben Okri
15 quotations
About Ben Okri
Sir Ben Golden Emuobowho Okri is a Nigerian-born British poet and novelist. Considered one of the foremost African authors in the postmodern and post-colonial traditions, Okri has been compared to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. In 1991, his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize. Okri was knighted at the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature.
Read on Wikipedia → Find books by Ben OkriPolitics is the art of the possible creativity is the art of the impossible.
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…
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.
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.
The strange thing about Africa is how past, present and future come together in a kind of rough jazz, if you like.
Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.
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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.
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 pe…
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…
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.
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.
I am not fighting for success, just to get more beauty out of myself and share it with more people.
Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.