You can’t make a living as a playwright. You can barely scrape by.

Meaning of the quote

Being a playwright, or someone who writes plays, is not a good way to make a lot of money. It's very difficult to earn enough money to live on just by writing plays. Many playwrights have a hard time making ends meet and just barely have enough to get by.

About Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard was a renowned American playwright, actor, director, and screenwriter who won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His plays are known for their bleak, poetic, and surreal elements, exploring the darker aspects of American society.

More about the author

More quotes from Sam Shepard

I didn’t go out of my way to get into this movie stuff. I think of myself as a writer.

Sam Shepard

American playwright and actor (1943-2017)

Film acting is really the trick of doing moments. You rarely do a take that lasts more than 20 seconds. You really earn your spurs acting onstage. I needed to do that for myself. I would hate to say at the end of everything that I never did a stage play.

Sam Shepard

American playwright and actor (1943-2017)

Sides are being divided now. It’s very obvious. So if you’re on the other side of the fence, you’re suddenly anti-American. It’s breeding fear of being on the wrong side.

Sam Shepard

American playwright and actor (1943-2017)

You can’t make a living as a playwright. You can barely scrape by.

Sam Shepard

American playwright and actor (1943-2017)

I’m a writer. The more I act, the more resistance I have to it. If you accept work in a movie, you accept to be entrapped for a certain part of time, but you know you’re getting out. I’m also earning enough to keep my horses, buying some time to write.

Sam Shepard

American playwright and actor (1943-2017)

Democracy’s a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it’s no longer democracy, is it? It’s something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.

Sam Shepard

American playwright and actor (1943-2017)

I feel like I’ve never had a home, you know? I feel related to the country, to this country, and yet I don’t know exactly where I fit in… There’s always this kind of nostalgia for a place, a place where you can reckon with yourself.

Sam Shepard

American playwright and actor (1943-2017)