Nigerian - Poet | March 15, 1959 -
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 that goes past on which I don't write poetry.
Ben Okri
LifeMomentDayBeginningPoetry
I began my writing life as a poet, so poetry has always been fundamental. I evolved from poetry to journalism to stories to novels. But poetry was always there.
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I study people all the time. For some reason, we're not very good at seeing what's there or hearing what we're hearing.
GoodTimePeopleSeeingStudySome
The poem is never complete in the mind. It emerges, and then it's like an act of unveiling. The unveiling is the longest and most difficult part of it.
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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.
BeautyVisionMeThinkLanguageYou
When I write a poem, I go into a state of self-forgetfulness, and something higher takes over; I like to call it my best self.
BestSelfGoWriteOverSomething
At the heart of 'The Famished Road' is a philosophical conundrum - for me, an essential one: what is reality? Everybody's reality is subjective; it's conditioned by upbringing, ideas, temperament, religion, what's happened to you.
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Reading is an act of civilization; it's one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities.
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One of the greatest gifts my father gave me - unintentionally - was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity.
FatherAdversityCourageMeGreatest
Home can be the friend you have been searching for all your life or the person you met once very briefly.
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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.
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Some of my reactions are very Nigerian. I still believe that words are things.
WordsBelieveThingsStillSome
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