Sam Shepard on American culture, the stage and screen, and writing at SFI

A conversation with writer, actor, director and past SFI Miller Scholar Sam Shepard covers America’s cultural decline, the recent deaths of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams -- and spending time at SFI.

"I go there every day," Shepard says. "It's kind of interesting – it's a thinktank situation, 95% of it is scientists. Me and Cormac [McCarthy] are the only two writers. Everybody else is a nuclear physicist. Which is cool, you know. But it leads to a lot of conversational dead-ends."

Shepard credits the Institute for being a boon to his focus and productivity as a writer. “‘It’s a great discipline,’ he says. ‘So I’m very content for that reason. I mean I produce…pages. Pages!’”

Read the article in The Guardian (September 7, 2014)