Ben Okri Quotes

The best writing is not about the writer, the best writing is absolutely not about the writer, it's about us, it's about the reader.

Ben Okri

• Writing

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Quotes to Explore

• When you're a child, it's easy to see school as the worst thing in the world. It's only later in life you realise what a wonderful time it was. Looking back, I can't believe I even wanted to leave.

  

  Ian Beattie
  • Life
  • Time
  • World

• When I was about four, people used to walk up to my mom and say I should be in commercials.

  

  Zachary Gordon
  • People
  • Up
  • Mom

• In real life, I'm gorgeous, beautiful.

  

  Rachel Dratch
  • Life
  • Real
  • Beautiful

• The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

  

  Samuel Johnson
  • More
  • Fortune
  • Pity

• During my childhood, I was surrounded by actors, and all I remember is they were fun to be around. That kind of sticks.

  

  Jack Davenport
  • Remember
  • Fun
  • Childhood

• I have never thought of a full-fledged career in Bollywood because boxing has never left my mind. But you never know.

  

  Vijender Singh
  • Mind
  • Career
  • Thought

• Human faces shouldn't get lost amid the statistics.

  

  Brown Campbell
  • Lost
  • Human
  • Statistics

• It is standard practice for corrupt leaders who are seeking a certain political outcome to hype or manipulate a terror threat or a threat of violent domestic subversion. While sometimes the threat is manufactured, frequently the hyped threat is based on a real danger.

  

  Naomi Wolf
  • Real
  • Political
  • Practice

• Frankly speaking, it's only the script that matters to me the most. If I like the script, then I just commit to myself and go ahead with it. But I also look at the commitment and confidence of the director of the film because it's him who will shape the film.

  

  Vidya Balan
  • Film
  • Confidence
  • Commitment

• You think you're looking at things all the time, but you're not looking at things, you're looking at what your brain is interpreting through light and color. And who knows what everybody else sees?

  

  Fiona Apple
  • Time
  • Light
  • Brain

• You have to protect yourself at all times. What goes around comes around.

  

  Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
  • You
  • Yourself
  • Protect

• I'll talk about these things, but it's just, you know, you only get so much time and I'm much more interested in what I'm going to be doing next year than in something I did 10 years ago.

  

  Walter Hill
  • Time
  • Know
  • Year

• The first, or theoretic branch, that which explains the nature, production, and distribution of wealth, will be found to rest on a very few general propositions, which are the result of observation, or consciousness.

  

  Nassau William Senior
  • Nature
  • Rest
  • Wealth

• Any beast can cry over the misfortunes of its own child. It takes a mensch to weep for others' children.

  

  Sam Levenson
  • Children
  • Child
  • Beast

• There's good and bad in everybody. I wasn't looking for the good, or looking for the bad. This is a man who signed his pact with the devil 20 years ago, and he's learned to live with it. He's tried to protect his family from it.

  

  Sam Mendes
  • Good
  • Live
  • Family

• Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.

  

  Irving Babbitt
  • Up
  • Chance
  • Looks

• I had seen images of Crystal Renn and Sophie Dahl growing up, but I didn't really know about the plus-size fashion industry or how lucrative it was or, like, that it was changing or that I was even invited.

  

  Paloma Elsesser
  • Up
  • Growing
  • Know

• Any acting is a stretch of the imagination. That's your job. Acting is truth in imaginary circumstances. Acting with green screen or a motion capture stage, you're striving for absolute truth in absolutely imaginary circumstances.

  

  Sam Worthington
  • Job
  • Truth
  • Imagination

• To stay interested in acting, I have to keep trying stuff I've never done before.

  

  Jessica Lange
  • Trying
  • Done

• I actually don't think there is any difference between French and American cuisine. French cuisine was always about discipline, about ingredient, about creativity, but also about simple. I see America as very similar in these rights.

  

  Daniel Boulud
  • American
  • America
  • Simple

• But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.

  

  Daniel Woodrell
  • Long
  • Writing

• I would agree with that. But when I write lyrics, personally I don't care if the person who is listening to it understands what I'm saying or not; and I write them like that specifically. You know, I have my views; I don't feel the need to have people have the same views as me. So if they find the meaning in the songs and it's the same meaning as the one I intended then fine and dandy and if they don't, they don't.

  

  David W. Marsden
  • People
  • Writing
  • Song

• In terms of whether my mom was influential, I think she instilled a certain way of thinking in me quite early: having a reflective mindset regarding my actions and trying to find the underlying reasons to behavior. I think that's quite helpful when you're trying to understand a character.

  

  Joel Kinnaman
  • Thinking
  • Trying
  • Character

• The best writing is not about the writer, the best writing is absolutely not about the writer, it's about us, it's about the reader.

  

  Ben Okri
  • Writing