Top 100 S. E. Hinton Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.”

— S. E. Hinton

Featured in: Famous Quotes, Live Life Quotes, Fiction Quotes, Character Quotes, Moving Quotes

2. “The difference is that was then, this is now.”

— S. E. Hinton

3. “Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”

— S. E. Hinton

4. “Things are rough all over.”

— S. E. Hinton

Featured in: Life is Hard Quotes

5. “Stay Gold.”

— S. E. Hinton

6. “You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don’t think he knows.”

— S. E. Hinton

7. “Get smart and nothing can touch you.”

— S. E. Hinton

8. “If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky.”

— S. E. Hinton

9. “It seemed funny that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”

— S. E. Hinton

10. “Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.”

— S. E. Hinton

11. “Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too.”

— S. E. Hinton

12. “Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it’s the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs.”

— S. E. Hinton

13. “They grew up on the outside of society. They weren’t looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.”

— S. E. Hinton

14. “I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.”

— S. E. Hinton

15. “I learned that if you want to get somewhere, you just make up your mind and work like hell til you get there.”

— S. E. Hinton

16. “I think that The Outsiders was meant to be written, and I was just picked to write it.”

— S. E. Hinton

17. “I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man do I have fun!”

— S. E. Hinton

Featured in: Fun Quotes

18. “I was a tomboy and most of my close friends were male.”

— S. E. Hinton

19. “Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see.”

— S. E. Hinton

20. “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.”

— S. E. Hinton

21. “Stay gold Pony Boy.”

— S. E. Hinton

22. “I had it then. Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. Why do I fight? I thought, and couldn’t think of any real good reason. There isn’t any real good reason for fighting except self-defense.”

— S. E. Hinton

Featured in: Fun Quotes

23. “If you want to be a writer, I have two pieces of advice. One is to be a reader. I think that’s one of the most important parts of learning to write. The other piece of advice is ‘Just do it!’ Don’t think about it, don’t agonize, sit down and write.”

— S. E. Hinton

24. “I never base a character on someone I know. You can get ideas from real life, but every character you write is some aspect of yourself.”

— S. E. Hinton

25. “You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want.”

— S. E. Hinton

26. “He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he’d die someday.”

— S. E. Hinton

27. “If we don’t have each other, we don’t have anything.”

— S. E. Hinton

28. “Y’all were heroes from the beginning. You just didn’t ‘turn’ all of a sudden.”

— S. E. Hinton

29. “All my life I wanted somebody who knew more than I did to tell me the truth.”

— S. E. Hinton

30. “I made up my mind that I’d get out of that place and I did... I learned that if you want to get somewhere, you just make up your mind and work like hell til you get there. If you want to go somewhere in life, you just have to work till you make it.”

— S. E. Hinton

31. “California is like a beautiful wild kid on heroin, high as a kite and thinking she’s on top of the world, not knowing she’s dying, not believing it even if you show her the marks.”

— S. E. Hinton

32. “Movies can’t ruin books. They can only ruin movies.”

— S. E. Hinton

33. “I advise writing to oneself. If you don’t want to read it, nobody else is going to read it.”

— S. E. Hinton

34. “I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money.”

— S. E. Hinton

35. “Dally didn’t die a hero. He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he’d die someday. Just like Tim Shepard and Curly Shepard and the Brumly boys and the other guys we knew would die someday. But Johnny was right. He died gallant.”

— S. E. Hinton

36. “It’s okay. We aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too.”

— S. E. Hinton

37. “I used to be sure of things. Me, once i had all the answers. I wish i was a kid again, when i had all the answers.”

— S. E. Hinton

38. “I guess I just couldn’t see standing there – alive, talking, thinking, breathing, being – one second, and dead the next. It really bothered me. Death by violence isn’t the same as dying any other way, accident or disease or old age. It just ain’t the same.”

— S. E. Hinton

39. “You know what the crummiest feeling you can have is? To hate the person you love the best in the world.”

— S. E. Hinton

40. “Dally was so real he scared me.”

— S. E. Hinton

41. “My mother was physically and emotionally abusive. My father was an extremely cold man.”

— S. E. Hinton

42. “If you’re going to lead people, you have to have somewhere to go.”

— S. E. Hinton

43. “You know the rules. No jazz before a rumble.”

— S. E. Hinton

44. “We couldn’t get along without him. We needed Johnny as much as he needed the gang. And for the same reason.”

— S. E. Hinton

45. “They used to be buddies, I thought, they used to be friends, and now they hate each other because one has to work for a living and the other comes from the West Side. They shouldn’t hate each other...”

— S. E. Hinton

46. “Need a haircut, greaser?”

— S. E. Hinton

47. “But I was still lying and I knew it. I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.”

— S. E. Hinton

48. “I really do like listening to stuff that’s happened to other people. I guess that’s why I like to read.”

— S. E. Hinton

49. “Anything you read can influence your work, so I try to read good stuff.”

— S. E. Hinton

50. “If you enjoy reading something, read it.”

— S. E. Hinton

Featured in: Reading Quotes