Maybe true travel is not the transportation of the body, but a change of perception, renewing the mind.

— Ben Okri

One of the greatest gifts my father gave me - unintentionally - was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity.

— Ben Okri

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.

— Ben Okri

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.

— Ben Okri

Reading, therefore, is a co-production between writer and reader. The simplicity of this tool is astounding. So little, yet out of it whole worlds, eras, characters, continents, people never encountered before, people you wouldn’t care to sit next to in a train, people that don’t exist, places you’ve never visited, enigmatic fates, all come to life in the mind, painted into existence by the reader’s creative powers. In this way the creativity of the writer calls up the creativity of the reader. Reading is never passive.

— Ben Okri

Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.

— Ben Okri

Strange things are happening to us.’‘To our children.’‘They say he is looking for the spirit of Independence.’‘They say he is looking for himself.’‘For his own spirit.’‘Which he lost when the white man came.

— Ben Okri

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.

— Ben Okri

The highest kind of writing—which must not be confused with the most ambitious kind…belongs to the realm of grace. Talent impart of it, certainly; a thorough understanding of the secret laws, absolutely. But finding the subject and theme which is in perfect harmony with your deepest nature, your forgotten selves, your hidden dreams, and the full resonated essence of your life—now that cannot be reached through searching, nor can it be stumbled upon through ambition. That sort of serendipity comes upon you on lucky day. It may emerge even out of misfortune or defeat. You may happen upon it without realizing that this is the work through which your whole life will sing. We should always be ready. We should be always humble. Creativity should always be a form of prayer.

— Ben Okri

The intelligence that shaped the universe, shaped you. There is an inner part of us, forever obscured, forever mysterious, which is most alive during the process of composition. And that inner part, that inner glow, is timeless, and it functions beyond time. It drinks from deep waters. It has the stillness and the dance and the radiance of firmament. When one is most absorbed in the act of creation one almost feels that one is wandering in the great corridors of all minds. Creativity makes us part of it all.

— Ben Okri