Ben Okri

Poet

1959-03-15

Ben Okri is a Nigerian poet and novelist whose work blends realism, myth, and political reflection. He won the Booker Prize for The Famished Road and is widely read in contemporary world literature.

Books by Ben Okri

The Famished Road
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Dangerous Love
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Astonishing the gods
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Quotes by Ben Okri

A people are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick.
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A people are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick.
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The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.
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The strange thing about Africa is how past, present and future come together in a kind of rough jazz, if you like.
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'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' had a formative effect on me. I think it's one of those works that if you encounter it very early you're doubly enchanted by the beauty of the language and the strangeness of the vision. It stays with you.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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To sustain your belief through situations that completely undermine it is quite something.
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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.
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I learned that life will go through changes - up and down and up again. It's what life does.
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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.
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I lived rough, by my wits, was homeless, lived on the streets, lived on friends' floors, was happy, was miserable.
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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.
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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.
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