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Writing Quotes by Sam Shepard

44 Writing quotes by Sam Shepard

All Writing quotes Sam Shepard’s page

Sam Shepard treats acting and writing as the same craft, saying the actor is a writer too. He finds inspiration in farm work—hay, horses, cattle—and the quiet of being alone, which he says fuels his best writing. He also enjoys moving between plays and prose, feeling lucky to explore different story forms.

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All good writing comes out of aloneness.

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[Rewriting is] a whole other art form; it's about craftsmanship.

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I think without writing I would feel completely useless.

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You can write 16 plays and not make as much money as you did doing one movie.

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“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…

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It's funny, in a way the actor is a writer. It's not like the two things are so separate as to be…

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There are places where writing is acting and acting is writing. I'm not so interested in the divisions. I'm interested in the…

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

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I got to New York when I was eighteen. I was knocking around, trying to be an actor, writer, musician, whatever happened.

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I've heard writers talk about "discovering a voice," but for me that wasn't a problem. There were so many voices that I…

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All of the great writers whom I admire have died. I guess the most recent one would be Marquez.

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Careers don't interest me. The only thing that interests me is continuing to be a poet on one level or another, whether…

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I feel like the writers that I'm drawn to, the writers that I really cling to, are the writers who seem to…

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The great thing for me, now, is that writing has become more and more interesting. Not just as a craft but as…

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I'm a writer. The more I act, the more resistance I have to it. If you accept work in a movie, you…

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

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

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Writing for theatre is certainly different to writing an essay or any other kind of fiction or prose: it's physical. You're also…

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Farm country -- you know, hay, horses, cattle. It's the ideal situation for me. I like the physical endeavors that go with…

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

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My first job was with the Burns Detective Agency. They sent me over to the East River to guard coal barges during…

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I wanted to write a play about double nature ... one that wouldn't be symbolic or metaphorical or any of that stuff.…

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It's hard to explain why exactly, but I think that when I began writing plays, it was from an actor's point of…

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What I'm after is something different than supplying people with the idea that I'm writing an important play.

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I feel like I'm a natural-born playwright, but the prose thing has always mystified me. How to keep it going? How do…

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

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Caryl Churchill is a writer of some note, but in the sack, she makes me explain everything.

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

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You sometimes use the excuse, 'I'm a writer, dammit, I can do anything I want,' but that doesn't work.

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When you write a play, you work out like a musician on a piece of music. You find all the rhythms and…

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I'm extremely grateful that I found writing, but it doesn't make it any more peaceful.

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When you're 19 and writing plays, you think every actor is full of it. They just can't handle your brilliant material.

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

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When you consider all the writers who never even had a machine. Who would have given an eyeball for a good typewriter.…

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Writing for the theatre is so different to writing for anything else. Because what you write is eventually going to be spoken.…

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I've always felt a great affinity with music. I've felt myself to be more of a musician than anything else, though I'm…

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The thing about American writers is that, as a group, they get stuck in the same idea: that we're a continent and…

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To sing a song is quite different than to write a poem. I'm not and never will be a novelist, but to…

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Being a writer is so great because you're literally not dependent on anybody. Whereas, as an actor, you have to audition or…

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For me, playwriting is and has always been like making a chair. Your concerns are balance, form, timing, lights, space, music. If…

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More by Sam Shepard

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

You can write 16 plays and not make as much money as you did doing one movie.

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…

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…

Why would you want to be be counseled in your grief? It's too private.

Farm country -- you know, hay, horses, cattle. It's the ideal situation for me. I like the physical endeavors that go with the farm…

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

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

All good writing comes out of aloneness.

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

I'll develop my own image. I'm an original man. A one and only. I just need some help.

When I just sit around my house and work, I can work two, three hours, and then I go off and ride a horse…

Hollywood is geared toward teenage idiocy.

It's my private life, and it's not up for grabs.

Keep away from fantasy. Shake off the image,