I am one year older than Nigeria at 51. In a human life, 51 might be old. But it is very young for a nation. By that, I mean a Nigeria conscious of itself as a nation. Ben Okri Read Quote
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 Okri Read Quote
Home can be the friend you have been searching for all your life or the person you met once very briefly. Ben Okri Read Quote
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. Ben Okri Read Quote
We have fallen into this very mean description of humanity. Naturalism in fiction is too reductive in its definition of human beings. Ben Okri Read Quote
You see, I was told stories, we were all told stories as kids in Nigeria. We had to tell stories that would keep one another interested, and you weren’t allowed to tell stories that everybody else knew. You had to dream up new ones. Ben Okri Read Quote
I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and Shakespeare. Ben Okri Read Quote
The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot be made into law. And so these legislators police the accepted frontiers of things. Ben Okri Read Quote
