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Time & Perspective Quote by Aaron Sorkin

"Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for"

About this Quote

Conflict is Sorkin's renewable resource, and he treats it less like a narrative problem than a power source. The sly move in this line is how aggressively it lowers the stakes: not war, not politics, not capital-T Tragedy, just "the time of day". He’s arguing that drama isn’t born from spectacle; it’s born from friction. Two minds can’t occupy the same space without bumping into each other, and those collisions generate character faster than any biography dump ever could.

The intent is craft-forward and slightly evangelistic. Sorkin is telling you what he hunts: disagreement as a diagnostic tool. Put two people together, let them argue about something trivial, and you immediately see hierarchy, insecurity, charm, ego, and need. One person corrects; the other deflects. Someone performs expertise. Someone resents being managed. The subtext is that plot is overrated; what matters is the velocity of competing desires.

Context matters because Sorkin’s brand is talk as action: walk-and-talk corridors, courtroom jousts, newsroom debates where language is a contact sport. Critics call it theatrical; fans call it exhilarating. This quote defends that approach by reframing dialogue as the engine, not the garnish. It also hints at a worldview: disagreement isn’t a social failure, it’s proof of intelligence and agency. In a culture that mistakes harmony for health, Sorkin stakes out a more combustible standard: if everyone agrees, either the room is bored or someone is being polite for survival.

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APA Style (7th ed.)
Sorkin, Aaron. (2026, January 14). Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/any-time-you-get-two-people-in-a-room-who-144647/

Chicago Style
Sorkin, Aaron. "Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for." FixQuotes. January 14, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/any-time-you-get-two-people-in-a-room-who-144647/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for." FixQuotes, 14 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/any-time-you-get-two-people-in-a-room-who-144647/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Aaron Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is a Producer from USA.

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