The worst time was 1983. Love and life and everything went wrong. I reached absolute rock bottom. I saw the Minotaur at the bottom of the abyss. I learnt of the harshness of the world and its impartiality to human failure.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on a period of deep despair and the harsh realities of life, encountering both personal lows and the impersonal nature of suffering.
In this quote, Ben Okri shares a poignant reflection on a particularly challenging time in his life, describing it as a moment when everything seemed to go wrong. He uses the metaphor of the Minotaur to symbolize the frightening depths of his despair, revealing the harsh truth that life can be indifferent to individual suffering and failure. Through this experience, he acknowledges the toughness of existence while conveying a profound sense of learning from adversity.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming difficulties, you might say: 'As Ben Okri once reflected on his personal struggle, we can find strength at our lowest points.'
One human life is deeper than the ocean. Strange fishes and sea-monsters and mighty plants live in the rock-bed of our spirits. The whole of human history is an undiscovered continent deep in our souls. There are dolphins, plants that dream, magic birds inside us. The sky is inside us. The earth is in us.
Our time here is magic! It's the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It's the only space.
Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret.
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.
The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot be made into law. And so these legislators police the accepted frontiers of things.
We can still astonish the gods in humanity_x000D_ _x000D_ And be the stuff of future legends,_x000D_ _x000D_ If we but dare to be real,_x000D_ _x000D_ And have the courage to see_x000D_ _x000D_ That this is the time to dream_x000D_ _x000D_ The best dream of them all.
The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence.
Life holds only one tragedy, ultimately: not to have been a saint.
Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. We are multi-volume sets. In our lives, even though one episode amounts to a crash and burn, there is always another episode awaiting us and then another. There are always more opportunities to get it right, to fashion our lives in the ways we deserve to have them. Don't waste your time hating a failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success.
I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart.
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop, The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.
I'm telling you, if aliens landed on earth today and took a good hard look at why babies get born, they'd conclude that most people had children by accident, or because they drink too much on a certain night, or because birth control isn't one hundred percent, or for a thousand other reasons that really aren't very flattering.
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