Ben Okri Quotes
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.
Quotes to Explore
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I can think of no one that my grandparents knew, that told me stories and that I experienced myself, had any sense of social inferiority growing up in segregated Washington. None whatsoever.
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I've got some incredible fans actually - so loyal and they make me birthday cards and Christmas cards. I got this package of poems and artwork based around the songs. They've got this thing called 'Floetry' where they all have to put in artwork. They've set up their own competitions and stuff which is kind of amazing.
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It is not weird for a dad to be doing the dishes, the laundry, and taking the kids to school, and read them stories for bed.
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The more I read about feeding times, sleep times and waking-up times, the more inadequate and miserable I felt.
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I would enjoy flying to Mars. This was the dream of the first cosmonauts. I wish I could realize it! I am ready to fly without coming back.
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Being 16 years old and getting an electric guitar is never going to get old. There's always going to be kids making music. There's always going to be kids in bands.
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But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down.
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For being in a relationship or to be linked up with somebody, you need to have time. I hang out with my friends just at my leisure, but there's no time to get into any link up.
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I started out with a dream to make a star in a jar in my garage, and I ended up meeting the President of the United States!
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Regulators are going to have to come up with a way to treat Bitcoin that is balanced and thoughtful but also recognize that this is a global phenomenon.
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Anyone who still supports George Bush would still let Michael Jackson babysit their kids.
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Back in 1968, when I was 30, my entire life blew up. I had a life plan, and it collapsed for no rational reason.
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There's no such thing as a writer's block. If you're having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.
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In Denver, I was a homebody, and that's a life I'd chosen with great happiness. I wanted that break from the arc lights and focus on building a lovely home, have some fun, look after my kids and do things that I had missed out on while pursuing my dream.
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Kids are starting at such a low base rate in terms of fitness that it's taking them years to catch up to where people like me started from. Every little bit is making it more difficult for kids to succeed on a world stage.
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The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I've been making it right for myself.
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The reason I got into acting was not to explore myself. I was a reader, I didn't care about acting. I got into it in college, but I had no interest really in that, in getting up in front of anybody.
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I grew up dancing my whole life, and I always kind of perceived that's what I would do professionally. But when I caught the acting bug, I knew I needed to go with no turning back.
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It may be a coincidence, but from the minute I took anti-depressants, I didn't pick up a guitar or a pen for seven years.
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Divorce is brutal and horrible and... you have to actively work to get your life back on track.
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I'm sure there are actors out there who work with other actors on a consistent basis - I am not one of them.
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Experimental work provides the strongest evidence for scientific realism. This is not because we test hypotheses about entities. It is because entities that in principle cannot be 'observed' are manipulated to produce a new phenomena
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Pessimism is playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes child's play.
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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.
