“Because we don’t exactly live in a Renaissance era, it is difficult for us to imagine what it’s like to have Renaissance people in our midst. By these, we mean artists who achieve prominence, or even command, in more than one field. So how to explain someone like Sam Shepard, who was both a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and an Oscar-nominated actor — not to mention a novelist and short story writer — in an age unaccustomed to such masterly jack-of-all-tradesmanship?” CNN: Sam Shepard (who died at 73) could do everything.

+ “When you write a play, you work out like a musician on a piece of music, you find all the rhythms and the melody and the harmonies and take them as they come.” The New Yorker: Sam Shepard and the struggles of American manhood.

+ “The temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me a terrible trap. Why not be more honest with the moment? The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That’s genius.”

+ “When you hit a wall — of your own imagined limitations — just kick it in.”

+ And the final scene from The Right Stuff: “Sir, over there, is that a man? … “You’re damn right it is.”