Ben Okri: ‘What happens when we die? We don’t die. We change realms’ | Ben Okri

Born in Minna, Nigeria, Ben Okri, 67, spent his childhood in Nigeria and London. He published his first novel Flowers and Shadows in 1980 and won the Booker prize in 1991 with The Famished Road. His subsequent work includes Astonishing the Gods, which in 2019 was selected as one of the BBC’s 100 novels “that shaped our world”. In 2023, he was knighted for services to literature. His latest novel, Waking the Warriors, is published on 16 July. He lives with his partner and their child in London.

When were you happiest?
On a train journey to Arcadia many years ago while making a TV documentary.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Worrying at things.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Coldness.

Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought?
A Dalí painting.

What is your most treasured possession?
A photograph of my mum and dad.

Describe yourself in three words
Alchemy. Love. Resilience.

What would your superpower be?
Enlightenment.

What makes you unhappy?
The killing of children, environmental indifference, injustice.

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
Universal respect for the Earth.

What is your most unappealing habit?
Gargling loudly with salt water.

What scares you about getting older?
Not being there for my daughter.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Composer, pirate, scientist, philosopher.

What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
“You don’t stand a chance of succeeding as a writer in this country. The demographics are against you.” They were wrong. The only demographic that counts is the human heart.

What was the last lie that you told?
Lying magically is my art, the art of storytelling.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Being here.

What was the best kiss of your life?
Ah, a circular breathing kiss, in another incarnation, intuited, never to be repeated.

Have you ever said ‘I love you’ and not meant it?
No. You don’t want to mess with such a cosmic force.

What is the worst job you’ve done?
Looking after the flowerbed on my windowsill.

If not yourself, who would you most like to be?
I’d like to have another crack at being me. I now know how I can be me better and faster, with grander results.

What would you like to leave your children?
The wisdom to become who they are in the truth of their spirit.

What has been your closest brush with the law?
In Lagos as a young man when a soldier brandished a gun at me.

Would you rather have more sex, money or fame?
More wisdom.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Evolve or perish.

What happens when we die?
We don’t die. We change realms. Life is eternal. Living is not. Live while you are alive.