High resolution laser spectroscopy is providing new insights into magnetic interactions in insulating solids by providing a way of measuring small interactions in the presence of much larger inhomogeneous broadening. Here we briefly review some of the techniques and examples of the information obtained with them. Included in this discussion are the use of spectral holeburning to measure linear and nonlinear Zeeman interactions, the magnetic field dependence of optical dephasing times determined from coherent transients and quantum beat free induction decay measurements of small sublevel splittings.