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

• Law! What do I care about the law? Ain't I got the power?

  

  Cornelius Vanderbilt
  • Power
  • Law
  • Care

• I always sort of liked Mesa/Boogies, but I wasn't sure if they were cool or not cool.

  

  Kurt Vile
  • Cool

• In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure.

  

  David Friedman
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Success

• I guess I don't really know any other way to do it, it just feels like the natural way to do things for me. Like - if I'm writing a song - it has to have some sort of value. Or it only has some kind of value to me, if it's something really personal. It has to mean something to me. I guess it is a little uncomfortable, or it's a little embarrassing sometimes, to know that stuff that honest is out there. But, when I hand off the thing, when it's totally done and mastered and sent, I kinda feel like it doesn't belong to me anymore.

  

  Noah Benjamin Lennox Animal Collective
  • Writing
  • Done
  • Song

• Your skin is like a plant. You have to water it. Make sure it's hydrated, not just squeaky clean.

  

  Emily Weiss
  • Water
  • Plant

• 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