Hats look exactly the same. There's no difference between The Writing Hat and The Acting Hat. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I got to New York when I was eighteen. I was knocking around, trying to be an actor, writer, musician, whatever happened. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
It's funny, in a way the actor is a writer. It's not like the two things are so separate as to be… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
A lot of American playwrights seem to have a career as a playwright. I don't consider it a career at all. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
When you're 19 and writing plays, you think every actor is full of it. They just can't handle your brilliant material. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
With acting, you can find a way to make it interesting for yourself, if nobody else - even on big-budget films. But… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
What I'm after is something different than supplying people with the idea that I'm writing an important play. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I feel like I'm a natural-born playwright, but the prose thing has always mystified me. How to keep it going? How do… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I know, as an actor, you have to negotiate, but I can't handle the whole idea that art and commerce are synonymous.… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I wanted to write a play about double nature ... one that wouldn't be symbolic or metaphorical or any of that stuff.… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
Writing for the theatre is so different to writing for anything else. Because what you write is eventually going to be spoken.… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
Writing for theatre is certainly different to writing an essay or any other kind of fiction or prose: it's physical. You're also… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
For me, playwriting is and has always been like making a chair. Your concerns are balance, form, timing, lights, space, music. If… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
Being a writer is so great because you're literally not dependent on anybody. Whereas, as an actor, you have to audition or… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I'm still very much a believer in the spontaneity of certain kinds of writing. But then you have to eventually, when you're… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
It's hard to explain why exactly, but I think that when I began writing plays, it was from an actor's point of… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
A good actor always sets you straight. If you've written a false moment and thought it was probably pretty great, the actor's… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I don't get offered leading parts. I suppose I've become a kind of character actor or sideman. I think it had to… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I think a part of the reason that those early plays were short was that I just kept having these ideas, and… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I guess what I like is mostly country & western or else stuff that has a real blues feel to it. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
You can write 16 plays and not make as much money as you did doing one movie. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
It's funny, in a way the actor is a writer. It's not like the two things are so separate as to be like apples… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
Character is an essential tendency. It can be covered up, it can be messed with, it can be screwed around with, but it can't… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
Why would you want to be be counseled in your grief? It's too private. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
Farm country -- you know, hay, horses, cattle. It's the ideal situation for me. I like the physical endeavors that go with the farm… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I think comedy's harder to pull off on the screen than on the stage, anyway. Tragedy is easier on the screen... oddly enough. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
“Those are the most monotonous fuckin' crickets I ever heard in my life.” — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
I'll develop my own image. I'm an original man. A one and only. I just need some help. — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
When I just sit around my house and work, I can work two, three hours, and then I go off and ride a horse… — Sam Shepard Copy Share Image
