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Top 25 Sol Stein Quotes (2025 Update)

Sol Stein Quote: “Our instinct as human beings is to provide answers, to ease tension. As writers our job is the opposite, to create tension and not dispel it immediately.”

1. “Our instinct as human beings is to provide answers, to ease tension. As writers our job is the opposite, to create tension and not dispel it immediately.”

Sol Stein Quote: “A lawyer’s job is to manipulate the skeletons in other people’s closets.”

2. “A lawyer’s job is to manipulate the skeletons in other people’s closets.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Today’s readers can be roughly divided into two groups, those who accept the fantasy villains of childhood, as in the James Bond stories and Arnold Schwarzenegger films, and those who insist on credibility.”

3. “Today’s readers can be roughly divided into two groups, those who accept the fantasy villains of childhood, as in the James Bond stories and Arnold Schwarzenegger films, and those who insist on credibility.”

Sol Stein Quote: “In our not-yet-acknowledged secret garden lie the seeds of some of our best not-yet-written stories.”

4. “In our not-yet-acknowledged secret garden lie the seeds of some of our best not-yet-written stories.”

Sol Stein Quote: “The expert magician seeks to deceive the mind, rather than the eye.”

5. “The expert magician seeks to deceive the mind, rather than the eye.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Tension produces instantaneous anxiety, and the reader finds it delicious.”

6. “Tension produces instantaneous anxiety, and the reader finds it delicious.”

Sol Stein Quote: “A writer writes what other people only think.”

7. “A writer writes what other people only think.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Diction involves the choice of words for their precise meaning and sound, the arrangement of those words, and their selection for effect.”

8. “Diction involves the choice of words for their precise meaning and sound, the arrangement of those words, and their selection for effect.”

Sol Stein Quote: “A reader’s emotions can be sparked with few words. That’s the power of dialogue.”

9. “A reader’s emotions can be sparked with few words. That’s the power of dialogue.”

Sol Stein Quote: “To create tension, dialogue needs to be stretched out. That is, characters should not be immediately responsive.”

10. “To create tension, dialogue needs to be stretched out. That is, characters should not be immediately responsive.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Dialogue is a lean language in which every word counts.”

11. “Dialogue is a lean language in which every word counts.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

12. “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on.”

13. “Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Parents begin by loving their children; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”

14. “Parents begin by loving their children; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”

Sol Stein Quote: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

15. “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Most of the time, tough, combative, adversarial dialogue is much more exciting than physical action.”

16. “Most of the time, tough, combative, adversarial dialogue is much more exciting than physical action.”

Sol Stein Quote: “The novelist is like the conductor of an orchestra, his back to the audience, his face invisible, summoning the experience of music for the people he cannot see. The writer as conductor also gets to compose the music and play all of the instruments, a task less formidable than it seems.”

17. “The novelist is like the conductor of an orchestra, his back to the audience, his face invisible, summoning the experience of music for the people he cannot see. The writer as conductor also gets to compose the music and play all of the instruments, a task less formidable than it seems.”

Sol Stein Quote: “I see manuscripts and books that are spoiled for the literary reader because they are one long stream of top-of-the-head writing, a writer telling a story without concern for precision or freshness in the use of language. Some of this storytelling reads as if it were spoken rather than written, stuffed with tired images that pop into the writer’s head because they are so familiar. The top of the head is fit for growing hair, but not for generating fine prose.”

18. “I see manuscripts and books that are spoiled for the literary reader because they are one long stream of top-of-the-head writing, a writer telling a story without concern for precision or freshness in the use of language. Some of this storytelling reads as if it were spoken rather than written, stuffed with tired images that pop into the writer’s head because they are so familiar. The top of the head is fit for growing hair, but not for generating fine prose.”

Sol Stein Quote: “A writer who always has his characters “walk” is missing opportunities.”

19. “A writer who always has his characters “walk” is missing opportunities.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Dialogue, contrary to popular view, is not a recording of actual speech; it is a semblance of speech, an invented language of exchanges that build in tempo or content toward climaxes.”

20. “Dialogue, contrary to popular view, is not a recording of actual speech; it is a semblance of speech, an invented language of exchanges that build in tempo or content toward climaxes.”

Sol Stein Quote: “The function of suspense is to put the reader in danger of an overfull bladder.”

21. “The function of suspense is to put the reader in danger of an overfull bladder.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Writers of nonfiction have the right – perhaps even the responsibility – to access the wonders of the writer’s craft to make their work interesting and enjoyable.”

22. “Writers of nonfiction have the right – perhaps even the responsibility – to access the wonders of the writer’s craft to make their work interesting and enjoyable.”

Sol Stein Quote: “We are all writers from an early age. Most of what we write is nonfiction – essays for school, letters to friends, memoranda to colleagues – in which we are trying to pass on information. We are raised with a traditional nonfiction mind-set. Even when we write love letters, we are trying to communicate how we feel and not necessarily trying to evoke an emotion in the recipient, though that might be better suited to our purpose.”

23. “We are all writers from an early age. Most of what we write is nonfiction – essays for school, letters to friends, memoranda to colleagues – in which we are trying to pass on information. We are raised with a traditional nonfiction mind-set. Even when we write love letters, we are trying to communicate how we feel and not necessarily trying to evoke an emotion in the recipient, though that might be better suited to our purpose.”

Sol Stein Quote: “When we get involved with other people, the chances of a clash are present even with people we love because we do not have the same scripts in our heads.”

24. “When we get involved with other people, the chances of a clash are present even with people we love because we do not have the same scripts in our heads.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Say it new or say it straight.”

25. “Say it new or say it straight.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Those are the three keys: the want and the opposition to the want need to be important, necessary, and urgent. The result should be the kind of conflict that interests readers.”

26. “Those are the three keys: the want and the opposition to the want need to be important, necessary, and urgent. The result should be the kind of conflict that interests readers.”

Sol Stein Quote: “Inaccurate similes and metaphors have the effect of deflecting the reader’s attention from the story to the words on the page. Yet when carried off, especially when a simile is original and a metaphor sings, there is no greater glory in the practice of words.”

27. “Inaccurate similes and metaphors have the effect of deflecting the reader’s attention from the story to the words on the page. Yet when carried off, especially when a simile is original and a metaphor sings, there is no greater glory in the practice of words.”

Sol Stein Quote: “In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, in Australia you have to explain what a writer is.”

28. “In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, in Australia you have to explain what a writer is.”

Sol Stein Quote: “What I have never witnessed is a writer’s work succeeding notably in a field he doesn’t habitually read for pleasure.”

29. “What I have never witnessed is a writer’s work succeeding notably in a field he doesn’t habitually read for pleasure.”

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