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Without stories we would go mad. Life would lose its moorings or lose its orientations. even in silence we are living our stories

Ben Okri

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Ben Okri
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: March 15
Author
Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Life
Silence
Lose
Loses
Living
Stories
Moorings
Without
Orientations
Even
Orientation
Would
Mad

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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.
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We have not yet arrived, but every point at which we stop requires a re-definition of our destination.
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We can still astonish the gods in humanity And be the stuff of future legends, If we but dare to be real, And have the courage to see That this is the time to dream The best dream of them all.
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To anyone who is homeless, I say, find a home.
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To sustain your belief through situations that completely undermine it is quite something.
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A people are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick. Without stories we would go mad. Life would lose it’s moorings or orientation... Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart larger.
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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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Destiny plans a different route and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected.
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To see the madness and yet walk a perfect silver line. ... That's what the true story-teller should be: a great guide, a clear mind, who can walk a silver line in hell or madness.
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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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If we are true, if we can love, if we have vision, if we can have courage, we can, we should, we ought to, we will.
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A man must be able to hold his drink because drunkenness is sometimes necessary in this difficult life.
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This earth that we live on is full of stories in the same way that, for a fish, the ocean is full of ocean. Some people say when we are born we're born into stories. I say we're also born from stories.
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I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and Shakespeare.
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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.
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I am not fighting for success, just to get more beauty out of myself and share it with more people.
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I held you in the square And felt the evening Re-order itself around Your smile.
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People are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves.
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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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