Ben Okri: What do you believe happens when we die?

The question

What do you believe happens when we die?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring late-stage question in The Guardian Q&A, with materially different answers on publisher-hosted pages.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Ben Okri

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

We don’t die. We change realms. Life is eternal. Living is not. Live while you are alive.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 July 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Hugh Grant Actor

Oh, man. Well, I hope when we die, it’s the same as before we were born. No one’s really frightened of that enormous, infinite blackness before we were born. No one sits there thinking, “Oh, God, how awful. I was nothing.” So I don’t really see why we should be frightened of that after we die, as long as it is black. I really don’t want to be up there on a cloud playing a harp, meeting some of the people I’ve hated in my life. I can’t imagine a greater nightmare. That would be hell, in fact.

Recorded The Talks, 7 May 2025 source ↗

Richard Eyre

The rest is silence.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 February 2026 source ↗

Jon Snow

I will let you know when I find out.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 March 2024 source ↗

Nick Frost

When my kids ask, “What happens when we die?” I say, “Do you remember the place you were in before you were born? I think we go back there.”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2025 source ↗