Sam Shepard quotes
Born
November 5, 1943 Fort Sheridan, Illinois, U.S.
Died
July 27, 2017.
Occupation
Actor, screenwriter, director.
Sam Shepard was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director.
All good writing comes out of aloneness.
– 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 horse’ that I’m very interested in.
– Sam Shepard
There are places where writing is acting and acting is writing. I’m not so interested in the divisions. I’m interested in the way things cross over.
– 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
It’s my private life, and it’s not up for grabs.
– Sam Shepard
I think without writing I would feel completely useless.
– Sam Shepard
I’m not a big fan of anniversaries.
– Sam Shepard
I was shot in the wrist when I was a kid. Deliberately.
– Sam Shepard
Myth is a powerful medium because it talks to the emotions and not the head. It moves us into an area of mystery.
– Sam Shepard
I’m a great believer in chaos. I don’t believe that you start with a formula and then you fulfill the formula. Chaos is a much better instigator, because we live in chaos – we don’t live in a rigorous form.
– Sam Shepard
When I first started, I didn’t really know how to structure a play.
– Sam Shepard
The words I overuse are all adverbs.
– Sam Shepard
I had two experiences with very close friends of mine who experienced aphasia, the loss of language. It shocked me.
– 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
To sit on a ranch horse that’s been broken in, it’s like getting in a Porsche.
– Sam Shepard
I don’t belong much anywhere.
– Sam Shepard
The funny thing about having all this so-called success is that behind it is a certain horrible emptiness.
– Sam Shepard
A good actor always sets you straight. If you’ve written a false moment and thought it was probably pretty great, the actor’s gonna show you when he gets to that moment. They’re the great test of the validity of the material.
– Sam Shepard
Hollywood is geared toward teenage idiocy.
– Sam Shepard
More than any other art form I know of in America, country music speaks of the true relationship between the American male and the American female… Terrible and impossible.
– Sam Shepard
To me, a strong sense of self isn’t believing in a lot.
– Sam Shepard
I’m not denying that it’s exciting to have a play on Broadway.
– Sam Shepard
I feel like I’m a natural-born playwright, but the prose thing has always mystified me. How to keep it going? How do people do it, for years and years?
– Sam Shepard
I basically live out of my truck – I mean from place to place. I feel more at home in my truck than just about anywhere, which is a sad thing to say, but it’s true.
– Sam Shepard
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
Sometimes in someone’s gestures you can notice how a parent is somehow inhabiting that person without there being any awareness of that. Sometimes you can look at your hand and see your father.
– Sam Shepard
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
Careers don’t interest me. The only thing that interests me is continuing to be a poet on one level or another, whether acting or writing or directing.
– Sam Shepard
When I just sit around my house and work, I can work two, three hours, and then I go off and ride a horse or do something that I perceive to be a lot more fun.
– 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 me.
– Sam Shepard