Sam Shepard

There's gonna be a general lack of toast in the neighborhood this morning.

— Sam Shepard

When I first started, I didn't really know how to structure a play.

— Sam Shepard

When I first started in film, I was terrified of the camera.

— Sam Shepard

Dialogue is like jazz. Dialogue is creative.

— Sam Shepard

“Those are the most monotonous fuckin' crickets I ever heard in my life.”

— Sam Shepard

When you die it's the end of your life.

— Sam Shepard

I've always found it embarrassing to receive awards.

— Sam Shepard

What I like most about Bolano is his courage.

— Sam Shepard

Hats look exactly the same. There's no difference between The Writing Hat and The Acting Hat.

— Sam Shepard

I always thought the desert was the antithesis of peace - something that attacks you. So you don't go to the desert…

— Sam Shepard

People are starved for a way of life - they're hunting for a way to be or to act toward the world.

— Sam Shepard

I keep endlessly busy with all kinds of stuff, mostly horses, cattle, livestock, things like that.

— Sam Shepard

To sit on a ranch horse that's been broken in, it's like getting in a Porsche.

— Sam Shepard

“The experience is always different than the plans. The experience was exhausting. I am still exhausted from it.”

— Sam Shepard

“You don't have to take it out on my typewrite ya' know. It's not the machine's fault that you can't write. It's…

— Sam Shepard

In many of my plays, there was a kind of autobiographical character in the form of a son or young man.

— Sam Shepard

“That’s the thing about later. You don’t know what’s coming up. You don’t know how all the loose ends are going to…

— Sam Shepard

“You can't believe people when they look you in the eyes. You gotta' look behind them. See what they're standing in front…

— Sam Shepard

I think most writers, in a sense, have this desire to disappear, to be absolutely anonymous, to be removed in some way:…

— Sam Shepard

I never considered myself a movie star, and I didn't want to become a movie star, because as soon as you do,…

— Sam Shepard

The wonderful thing about writing for theatre is you can go anywhere you want with the language. There are no limits. With…

— Sam Shepard

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

I stay away from heavy-handed stuff, the good guy and the bad guy. It just doesn't interest me; all it does is…

— Sam Shepard

I think Bolano had a generosity about him that was unique. He seemed to include so many people in the circle of…

— Sam Shepard

To me, a strong sense of self isn't believing in a lot.

— Sam Shepard

When you listen intensely to anything, you see how it can be improved.

— Sam Shepard

I still find it hard to believe that the whole era of jazz is over.

— Sam Shepard

Myth is a powerful medium because it talks to the emotions and not the head. It moves us into an area of…

— Sam Shepard

I used to work a lot on ranches where I grew up, and I had to rise at 5:30 in the morning.

— Sam Shepard

I guess what I like is mostly country & western or else stuff that has a real blues feel to it.

— Sam Shepard

This isn't champagne anymore. We went through the champagne a long time ago. This is serious stuff. The days of champagne are…

— Sam Shepard

With acting, you can find a way to make it interesting for yourself, if nobody else - even on big-budget films. But…

— Sam Shepard

When I was a kid, we didn't have a TV until the late '50s, but I can remember watching Hopalong Cassidy, Roy…

— Sam Shepard

I've been so spoiled in the theater, writing plays where I can just do exactly what I want and nobody messes with…

— Sam Shepard

I've been into horses as far back as I can remember. There is a particular kind here in America called the 'quarter…

— Sam Shepard

If you start trying to figure out yourself from the image everyone has of you, you run into a dead end.

— Sam Shepard

It's one of the great tragedies of our contemporary life in America, that families fall apart. Almost everybody has that in common.

— Sam Shepard

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

I think comedy's harder to pull off on the screen than on the stage, anyway. Tragedy is easier on the screen... oddly…

— Sam Shepard

Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster.

— Sam Shepard