Ben Okri Quotes

Turn your scars into stars.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

KIN' is basically a kind of rite of passage, scars-and-all celebration of going through difficult things in your life and being better for it.

The theme of my life is overcoming. It is my personal mantra and what I help other people do.

You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life.

No one is perfect in this world, and we all have our battles, but it's the way we get back on our feet and turn it around that really counts.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

You don't have to fear defeat if you believe it may reveal powers that you didn't know you possessed.

I believe in struggle. And I believe that the struggle is beautiful. You have to try it, or you will never know what's beyond it.

You put me in here a cub, but I will come out a roaring lion.

As you wrestle with life... You're going to come out on the other end healed... I've fallen short sometimes, and I've risen pretty high a few times.

I have been drawn to stories that are attempting to turn suffering into beauty.

I wanted people to know that I'm human, and I'm only successful because I've learned the hard way. I've been in so many dark places, but I got myself out.

The pain that all people experience in life and the light that helps them champion through it all - it's their lives and their stories and their love and will to keep living that moves me to write.

Of course fear does not automatically lead to courage. Injury does not necessarily lead to insight. Hardship will not automatically make us better. Pain can break us or make us wiser. Suffering can destroy us or make us stronger. Fear can cripple us, or it can make us more courageous. It is resilience that makes the difference.

I had to suffer, I had to fight, and now I feel great.

Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.

No soul that aspires can ever fail to rise; no heart that loves can ever be abandoned. Difficulties exist only that in overcoming them we may grow strong, and they who have suffered are able to save.

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

Even if you may be down to the worst, the best is potentially within you. You only have to find it, release it, and rise up with it. This requires courage and character, to be sure, but the main requirement is faith. Cultivate faith and you will have the necessary courage and character.

Heartbreaks, disappointments and even our own weaknesses can serve as stepping-stones to the second half of life transformation. Failings are the foundation for growth. Those who have fallen, failed or 'gone down' are the only ones who understand 'up.'

A lot of what is most beautiful about the world arises from struggle.

In my stories, I controlled what happened in a way I couldn't in real life. My characters lived through the horror and degradation of the cruelty of others and they not only survived, they thrived. They gave me hope and laughter, and they kept me going in spite of everything else. They were my heroes.

It's taken me a long time to become the person I am, for all the ugliness to fall away. The rotten flesh is gone, and the seed is there. I can touch that now.

I speak to people who have been through so much more.