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Who really said it

It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing

Written by Gertrude Stein 1874–1946 · American modernist writer & art collector
Verified In copyright

Stein wrote this in Everybody’s Autobiography (Random House, 1937), where it appears in Chapter 2. Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ ties it to that work. The popular form is slightly clipped — her full sentence closes “…so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.”

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing” Gertrude Stein, Everybody's Autobiography (Random House, 1937), Ch. 2

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Gertrude Stein / Random House (Penguin Random House)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Gertrude Stein — American modernist writer, poet & art collector. Theme: "It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work
Everybody’s Autobiography
Author
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
First published
1937, Random House (New York)
Location
Chapter 2

It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.

The widely shared version stops at “doing nothing”; Stein’s own sentence repeats the phrase for emphasis — “really doing nothing.”

Everybody’s Autobiography at the Internet Archive

How we traced it

  • Wikiquote ↗ lists the line in its sourced section under Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 2 — not among misattributed or disputed lines.
  • First-edition catalog records confirm Everybody’s Autobiography was published by Random House in 1937 ↗, Stein’s sequel to The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.
  • Quote databases such as QuotePark ↗ reproduce the same wording and cite the same 1937 work and chapter.
In copyright

Everybody’s Autobiography was first published in 1937, so under current U.S. law it remains in copyright (95 years from publication, into 2032). The words are Stein’s; reproduce longer passages only with permission of her estate and publisher.

Fact-check

Set the record straight

This one is genuinely Stein — the problem is how it travels, not whether she said it.

Countless quote sites clipped

The line is almost always cut short at “so much doing nothing.” Stein’s sentence in Everybody’s Autobiography repeats the idea — “really doing nothing” — which is part of her characteristic style. See Wikiquote ↗.

Social media & poster prints unsourced

The quip circulates with no book named, which is why it gets lumped in with the many fabricated “Stein” lines. It is real — and it has an address: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 2.

Authentic Gertrude Stein, from Everybody’s Autobiography (1937) ↗ — just usually quoted a few words short.

Context

Why it resonates

Stein was only half-joking. She genuinely believed genius required unstructured, apparently idle time — the mental wandering out of which her experimental writing came. Placed in Everybody’s Autobiography, the remark is of a piece with her lifelong, self-assured insistence that she was a genius, delivered with a deadpan wit that made the boast go down easily.

The line endures because it flatters the daydreamer in everyone: it reframes doing nothing as creative labor. That is also why it’s so easy to strip from its source and paste onto a productivity meme — the sentiment survives even when the citation falls away.

It takes a lot of time to be a genius… really doing nothing.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Simplicity Creativity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Gertrude Stein — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced-quotes section listing this line under Everybody's Autobiography (1937), Ch. 2.
Everybody's Autobiography (Internet Archive)archive.org

Digitized copy of the 1937 work in which the quote appears.
First-edition record (AbeBooks)abebooks.com

Confirms Random House, 1937 first publication of the book.
Everybody's Autobiography — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Background on the 1937 book and its relation to the Alice B. Toklas autobiography.
Gertrude Stein — Poetry Foundationpoetryfoundation.org

Biography and critical overview of Stein's life and modernist work.

The author

About the author

Gertrude Stein

1874–1946 · American modernist writer, poet & art collector

Gertrude Stein was an American expatriate writer whose Paris salon at 27 rue de Fleurus was a hub of early-20th-century modernism, mentoring figures from Picasso to Hemingway. Known for her playful, repetitive prose, she wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933) and its sequel Everybody’s Autobiography (1937). Her wry aphorisms — often about genius, which she cheerfully claimed for herself — are among the most quoted lines of the era.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography (New York: Random House, 1937), Ch. 2.

MLA (9th ed.)

Stein, Gertrude. Everybody’s Autobiography. Random House, 1937.

APA (7th ed.)

Stein, G. (1937). Everybody’s autobiography. Random House.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/it-takes-a-lot-of-time-to-be-a-genius-you-have-to-sit

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