Poets & Writers Theater

“In this book of mine, Brave New World, I postulated a substance called ‘soma’...I think it’s quite on the cards that we may have drugs which will profoundly change our mental states without doing us any harm.” In this Blank on Blank animated video of a 1958 interview with journalist Mike Wallace, Aldous Huxley speaks about his 1932 novel and his predictions for the future of political leadership, propaganda, and technology.

"It's from 'A Prayer for My Daughter' and the lines are 'It's certain that fine women eat / A crazy salad with their meat,' and I thought it was a nice title for a book about women." In this 1975 interview with Studs Terkel, the late Nora Ephron recounts lines by Yeats, the poetic inspiration for the title of her book of essays Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women (Random House, 1975), and talks about her experiences as a journalist and feminist. Animated by Pat Smith, this video is part of PBS Digital Studio's Blank on Blank series.

"To me, poetry is one of the highest, most abstract, most fulfilling forms of communication. We've always needed poets." In this recording from 1976, Patti Smith talks to journalist Mick Gold about censorship, her creative habits and inspirations, and recounts her first exposure to the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Animated by Patrick Smith, the video is part of PBS Digital Studios' Blank on Blank series.

“Sometimes for a kid the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line. And that’s the way that we think in dreams.” In this Blank on Blank animated video of a 1989 interview, Stephen King talks about the many different connections between childhood and his own writing process.

“It was very, very bright and the moon was being reflected off of the snow, and I wrote that poem by the ice-reflected moonlight...” Leonard Cohen reads his poem “Two Went to Sleep” and talks about the origins of the lyrics for “Sisters of Mercy” in this Blank on Blank animated video of a 1974 interview with Kathleen Kendel.

"A writer is lucky because he cures himself everyday." In this recorded talk from November 1970, Kurt Vonnegut shared his thoughts on writing as a guest speaker for a class at New York University. This animated video by Patrick Smith is part of PBS Digital Studios' Blank on Blank series.

In this 1967 interview with Studs Terkel, Hunter S. Thompson talks about the inspiration for his first book, Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Random House, 1966). The video was animated by Patrick Smith for PBS Digital Studios' Blank on Blank series.