Sam Shepard Biography

Sam Shepard was AN yank actor, playwright, author, scriptwriter, and director. He was the winner of 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most won by any writer or director. He wrote forty-four plays still as many books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Shepard received the publisher Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried kid ANd was appointed for an accolade for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager within the 1983 film the proper Stuff. He received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master yank writer in 2009. New York magazine represented Shepard as “the greatest yank dramatist of his generation.”

Shepard’s plays are well-known for his or her bleak, poetic, surrealist elements, black comedy, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society. His vogue evolved from the absurdism of his early off-off-Broadway work to the realism of later plays like Buried kid and Curse of the Starving category.

Sam Shepard Age

Shepard’s sunrise was on November 5, 1943, while his sunset was on July 27, 2017, aged 73.

Sam Shepard Family

Sam Shepard (born Samuel Shepard Rogers) was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was named Samuel Shepard Rogers III when his father, Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr., but was called Steve Rogers. Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr. was a lecturer and farmer WHO served within u. s. Army Air Forces as a bomber pilot throughout war II. Shepard characterized his father as “a drinking man, an infatuated alcoholic”. His mother, Jane Elaine, was a teacher and a native of Chicago.

Sam Shepard Education

As a child, he attended Duarte High School in Duarte, California in 1961, graduated and then worked on a ranch as a teenager. He then went to Mt. San Antonio College, where he briefly studied animal husbandry. There, he became enamored of Samuel Beckett, jazz, and abstract expressionism. He dropped out to join a touring repertory group, the Bishop’s Company.

Sam Shepard Wife

From 1970 to 1971, Shepard was involved in an extramarital affair with musician Patti Smith, who remained unaware of Shepard’s identity as a multiple Obie Award-winning playwright until it was divulged to her by Jackie Curtis. According to Smith, “Me and his wife still even liked each other. I mean, it wasn’t like committing fornication within the suburbs or one thing.”

Shepard met Academy Award-winning actress Jessica Lange on the set of the film Frances, in which they were both actings. He captive in along with her in 1983, and they were together for 26 years; they separated in 2009.

Sam Shepard Children | Sam Shepard Daughter

They had two children, Hannah Jane Shepard (born 1986) and Samuel Walker Shepard (born 1987). In 2003, Shepard’s elder son, Jesse, wrote a book of short stories, and Shepard appeared with him at a reading at City Lights Bookstore.

Sam Shepard True West

True West may be a play by Yankee dramatist playwright. Some critics contemplate it the third of a Family triad which incorporates Curse of the Starving category (1976) and Buried kid (1979). Others contemplate it a part of a quintet that includes Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind (1985).

True West was a rival for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1983.

Sam Shepard Fool For Love

Fool for Love is a play written by Yankee writer and actor dramatist. The play focuses on might and Eddie, former lovers United Nations agency have met once more in an exceedingly motor hotel within the desert. The play premiered in 1983 at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, where Shepard was the playwright-in-residence. The play was a challenger for the 1984 Joseph Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The play is an element of a quintet which incorporates Shepard’s Family Trilogy: Curse of the Starving category (1977), Buried Child (1979), and True West (1980). The quintet concludes with Fool for Love and A Lie of the Mind (1985).

Sam Shepard The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff is a 1983 yank epic historical drama film. It was custom-made from Tom Wolfe’s popular 1979 book of constant name regarding the Navy, Marine and Air Force check pilots WHO were concerned in natural philosophy analysis at Edwards Air Force Base, California, yet because the Mercury Seven, the seven military pilots WHO were designated to be the astronauts for Project Mercury, the primarily manned voyage by the United States.

The Right Stuff was written and directed by Prince Philipinburgh|prince} playwright and stars Ed Harris, Scott spaceman, dramatist, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid and Barbara Hershey. Levon Helm is that the speaker within the introduction et al within the film, yet as having a co-starring role as Air Force airplane pilot Jack marine turtle.

The film was a box-office failure, grossing about $21 million against a $27 million budget. Despite this, it received widespread crucial acclaim and eight laurels nominations at the 56th Academy Awards, four of that it won. In 2013 the film was designated for preservation within us National Film written account by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, traditionally, or aesthetically significant”.

Sam Shepard Death | Sam Shepard Funeral

He died on July 27, 2017, at his home in Kentucky, aged 73, from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Patti Smith paid homage to their long collaboration in The New Yorker.

Sam Shepard Career

Shepard found work as a dining-room attendant at the Village Gate club once he arrived in the big apple town, and in 1962 became concerned within the off-off-Broadway theater scene through Ralph Cook, the Village Gate’s head waiter. Steve Rogers then adopted the skilled name Sam Shepard through his plays would eventually be staged at many off-off-Broadway venues, Shepard was most closely connected with Cook’s Theatre Genesis, housed at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village.

In 1965, Shepard’s one-act plays Dog and therefore the rocker were created at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. This was the primary in several productions of Shepard’s work on La MaMa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

In 1967, Tom O’Horgan directed Shepard’s comedy Play aboard writer Melfi’s Times Square and Rochelle Owens’ Futz at La MaMa. In 1969, Jeff Bleckner directed Shepard’s phantasy play The Unseen Hand at La MaMa. The Unseen Hand would later influence Richard O’Brien’s musical The Rocky Horror Show. Bleckner then directed The Unseen Hand alongside Forensic and the Navigators at the nearby Astor Place Theater in 1970.

Shepard’s play shaven Splits was directed at La MaMa in 1970 by Bill Hart. Seth Allen directed comedy Play at La MaMa the subsequent year. In 1981, Tony Barsha directed The Unseen Hand at La MaMa. The production then transferred to the Provincetown plaything and ran for over a hundred performances. Syracuse Stage co-produced The Tooth of Crime at La MaMa in 1983 additionally in 1983, the Overtone Theatre and New Writers at the west co-produced Shepard’s plays Superstitions and therefore the unhappy Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing His married person at La MaMa. John Densmore performed in his own play Skins and Shepard and Joseph Chaikin’s play Tongues, directed as a double bill by Tony Abatemarco, at La MaMa in 1984. Nicholas Swyrydenko
directed a production of earth science of a Horse Dreamer at La MaMa in 1985.

Several of Shepard’s early plays, together with Red Cross (1966) and La Turista (1967), were directed by Jacques Levy. A patron of the Chelsea edifice scene, he additionally contributed to Kenneth Tynan’s Oh! Calcutta! (1969) and drummed periodically from 1967 through 1971 with the psychedelic people band The Holy Modal Rounders, showing on their albums Indian outcry (1967) and therefore the eel Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders (1968). After winning six Obie Awards between 1966 and 1968, Shepard emerged as a scriptwriter with Robert Frank’s Maine and My Brother (1968) and designer Antonioni’s Zabriskie purpose (1970).

Cowboy Mouth, a collaboration with his then-lover Patti Smith, was staged at The American Place Theatre in April 1971, providing early exposure for Smith, who became a well-known musician. The story and characters in Cowboy Mouth were loosely impressed by Shepard and Smith’s relationship. After the start, he abandoned the assembly and fled to the geographical area while not a word to anyone concerned.

Shortly thenceforth, Shepard resettled together with his married person and son to London. While in London, he immersed himself within the study of G. I. Gurdjieff’s Fourth method, a continual preoccupation for a lot of his life. Returning to us in 1975, he rapt to the 20-acre Flying Y Ranch in Mill Vale, California, where he raised a young colt named Drum and rode double together with his young son on Associate in Nursing riding horse named impresario. Shepard continued to write plays and served for a semester as Regents’ Professor of Drama at the University of California, Davis. Shepard attended vocalizer on the Rolling Thunder variety of 1975 because the scriptwriter for Renaldo and Clara that emerged from the tour. However, as a result of a lot of the film was makeshift, Shepard’s work was rarely used. His diary of the tour, Rolling Thunder book, was printed in 1978. A decade later, Dylan and Shepard co-wrote the 11-minute song “Brownsville Girl”, enclosed on Dylan’s 1986 Knocked Out Loaded album and on later compilations.

In 1975, Shepard was named playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, wherever he created several of his notable works, together with his Family triad. One of the plays within the triad, Buried kid (1978), won the Pulitzer Prize and was appointed for 5 Tony Awards. This marked a major turning point in his career, heralding a number of his known work, together with True West (1980), Fool for Love (1983), and A Lie of the Mind (1985). A comic tale of reunion, in which a young man drops in on his grandfather’s Illinois farmstead only to be greeted with indifference by his relations, Buried Child saw Shepard stake a claim to the psychological piece of ground of classic yank theater. True West and Fool for Love were afterward appointed for the Pulitzer Prize. Some critics have expanded the trilogy to a quintet, including Fool for Love and A Lie of the Mind. Shepard won a record-setting ten Obie Awards for writing and directional between 1966 and 1984.

In 2010, A Lie of the Mind was revived in the big apple at a similar time as Shepard’s new play Ages of the Moon opened there reflective on the 2 plays, Shepard aforesaid that the older play felt “awkward”, adding, “All of the characters square measures in a very broken place, broken into items, and the pieces don’t really fit together,” while the newer play “is like a Porsche. It’s sleek, it will specify what you would like it to try to, and it will speed up however additionally shows off nice brakes.” The revival {and the|and therefore the|and additionally the} new play also coincided with the publication of Shepard’s collection Day out of Days: Stories. The book includes “short stories, poems, and narrative sketches… that developed from dozens of leather-bound notebooks [Shepard] carried with him over the years.”

Shepard began his film acting career when casting in a major role as the doomed land baron in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978), opposite Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. This light-emitting diode to alternative vital film roles, including that of Cal, Ellen Burstyn’s character’s love interest in Resurrection (1980), and, most notably, Shepard’s portrayal of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983). The latter performance attained Shepard associate degree honor nomination for Best Supporting Actor. By 1986, Fool for Love was adapted by Robert Altman with Shepard in the lead role; A Lie of the Mind was being performed Off-Broadway with an all-star cast (including William Harvey Keitel and Geraldine Page), and Shepard was operating steadily as a movie actor. Together, these achievements place him on the quilt of Newsweek.

Over the years, Shepard educated extensively on playwriting and alternative aspects of theater. He gave categories and seminars at numerous theater workshops, festivals, and universities. Shepard was nonappointive to the Yankee Academy of Arts and Letters in 1986 and was nonappointive a Fellow of the Yankee Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986. In 2000, Shepard incontestible his feeling to the Magic Theatre by staging The Late Henry bryophyte as a profit for the theatre, in an urban center. The forged enclosed Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Cheech Marin.

The limited, three-month run was sold out. In 2001, Shepard played General William F. Garrison in the film Black Hawk Down. Although he was forged during a supporting role, Shepard enjoyed renewed interest in his talent for screen acting.

Shepard performed Spalding Gray’s final monologue, Life Interrupted, for the audiobook version, released in 2006. In 2007, Shepard contributed stringed instrument to Patti Smith’s cowl of Nirvana’s song “Smells Like young Spirit” on her album Twelve. Although several artists had associate degree influence on Shepard’s work, one in every of the foremost vital was Joseph Chaikin, a veteran of The Living Theatre and founder of The Open Theater. The two worked together on various projects, and Shepard has stated that Chaikin was a valuable mentor. In 2011, Shepard starred in the film Blackthorn. His final film look is rarely Here, that premiered in June 2017 however had been recorded within the fall of 2014. Shepard additionally appeared within the tv series Bloodline
between 2014-2017.

At the start of his career, Shepard failed to direct his own plays. His early plays had a variety of various administrators but were most frequently directed by Ralph Cook, the founder of Theatre Genesis. Later, whereas living at the Flying Y Ranch, Shepard fashioned a winning playwright-director relationship with Robert Woodruff, who directed the premiere of Buried Child (1982), among other plays. During the Nineteen Seventies, Shepard determined that his vision for his plays needed him to direct them himself. He directed several of his own plays from that time on. With solely a couple of exceptions, he did not direct plays by other playwrights. He additionally directed 2 films, however reportedly failed to see film leading as a significant interest.

Sam Shepard Filmography

As actor

Film

Year	Title	Role
1970	Brand X	Unknown
1978	Renaldo and Clara	Rodeo
1978	Days of Heaven	The Farmer
1980	Resurrection	Cal Carpenter
1981	Raggedy Man	Bailey
1982	Frances	Harry York
1983	The Right Stuff	Chuck Yeager
1984	Country	Gilbert “Gil” Ivy
1985	Fool for Love	Eddie
1986	Crimes of the Heart	Doc Porter
1987	Baby Boom	Dr. Jeff Cooper
1989	Steel Magnolias	Spud Jones
1990	Bright Angel	Jack
1991	Voyager	Walter Faber
1991	Defenseless	Detective Beutel
1992	Thunderheart	Frank Coutelle
1993	The Pelican Brief	Thomas Callahan
1994	Safe Passage	Patrick Singer
1997	The Only Thrill	Reece McHenry
1998	Curtain Call	Will Dodge
1999	Purgatory	Sheriff Forrest/Wild Bill Hickok
1999	Snow Falling on Cedars	Arthur Chambers
2000	Hamlet	Ghost
2000	All the Pretty Horses	J.C. Franklin
2001	The Pledge	Eric Pollack
2001	Swordfish	James Reisman
2001	Black Hawk Down	William F. Garrison
2002	Leo	Vic
2003	Blind Horizon	Sheriff Jack Kolb
2004	The Notebook	Frank Calhoun
2005	Don’t Come Knocking	Howard Spence
2005	Stealth	George Cummings
2006	Bandidas	Bill Buck
2006	Walker Payne	Syrus
2006	The Return	Ed Mills
2006	Charlotte’s Web	Narrator
2007	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford	Frank James
2008	The Accidental Husband	Wilder Lloyd
2008	Felon	Gordon Camrose
2009	Brothers	Hank Cahill
2010	Fair Game	Sam Plame
2010	Inhale	James Harrison
2011	Blackthorn	Butch Cassidy
2012	Shepard & Dark	Himself
2012	Darling Companion	Sheriff Morris
2012	Safe House	Harlan Whitford
2012	Killing Them Softly	Dillon
2012	Mud	Tom Blankenship
2013	Savannah	Mr. Stubbs
2013	August: Osage County	Beverly Weston
2013	Out of the Furnace	Gerald “Red” Baze
2014	Cold in July	Ben Russell
2015	Ithaca	Willie Grogan
2016	Midnight Special	Calvin Meyer
2016	In Dubious Battle	Mr. Anderson
2017	Never Here	Paul Stark

Television                                           

Year	Title	Role
1995	The Good Old Boys	Snort Yarnell
1996	Lily Dale	Pete Davenport
1999	Streets of Laredo	Pea Eye Parker
1999	Purgatory	Sheriff Forrest / Wild Bill Hickok
1999	Dash and Lilly	Dashiell Hammett
2000	One Kill	Major Nelson Gray
2000	Great Performances	Narrator (voice)
2001	After the Harvest	Caleb Gare
2001	Shot in the Heart	Frank Gilmore, Sr.
2007	Ruffian	Frank Whiteley
2010	Rough Trade	(Role unknown)
2014	Klondike	Father Judge
2015–2017	Bloodline	Robert Rayburn

Film

Year	Title	Notes
1969	Me and My Brother	Co-writer
1970	Zabriskie Point	Co-writer
1972	Oh! Calcutta!	Sketch contributions
1978	Renaldo and Clara	Co-writer
1981	Savage/Love	Short film
1982	Tongues	Short film
1984	Paris, Texas	Co-writer
1985	Fool for Love
1988	Far North	Also director
1994	Silent Tongue	Also director
1994	Curse of the Starving Class
1999	Simpatico
2005	Don’t Come Knocking	Co-writer
2007	Fool for Love	Short film

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1974	ITV Saturday Night Theatre	Episode: “Geography of a Horse Dreamer”
1984	American Playhouse	Episode: “True West”
1986	Den sultende klasses forbannelse	Norwegian adaptation of Curse of the Starving Class
1991	Autèntic oest	Spanish adaptation of True West
1991	Loucos Por Amor	Portuguese adaptation of Fool for Love
1995	O Verdadeiro Oeste	Portuguese adaptation of True West
1996	Pazzo d’amore	Italian adaptation of Fool for Love
2002	True West	Adaptation of True West
2004	See You in My Dreams	Adapted from Cruising Paradise and Motel Chronicles

Sam Shepard Bibliography | Sam Shepard Books

Collections

• 1973: Hawk Moon, PAJ Books; ISBN 0-933826-23-0
• 1983: Motel Chronicles, City Lights; ISBN 0-87286-143-0
• 1984: Seven Plays, Dial Press, 368 pages; ISBN 0-553-34611-3
• 1984: Fool for Love and Other Plays, Bantam Books, 320 pages; ISBN 0-553-34590-7
• 1996: The Unseen Hand: and Other Plays, Vintage Books, 400 pages; ISBN 0-679-76789-4
• 1996: Cruising Paradise, Vintage Books, 255 pages; ISBN 0-679-74217-4
• 2003: Great Dream of Heaven, Vintage Books, 160 pages; ISBN 0-375-70452-3
• 2004: Rolling Thunder Logbook, Da Capo Press, 176 pages (reissue); ISBN 0-306-81371-8
• 2004: Day out of Days: Stories, Knopf, 304 pages; ISBN 978-0-307-26540-1
• 2013: Two Prospectors: The Letters of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark, University of Texas Press, 400 pages; ISBN 978-0-292-76196-4

Novels

• 2017: The One Inside, Knopf, 172 pages; ISBN 978-0-451-49458-0
• 2017: Spy of the First Person, Knopf, 96 pages (published posthumously); ISBN 978-0-525-52156-3

Sam Shepard Awards

Academy Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1983	The Right Stuff	Best Supporting Actor	Nominated

American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1992	Himself	Gold Medal for Drama	Won

American Theater Hall of Fame

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1994	Himself	Theater Hall of Fame	Won

British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1984	Paris, Texas	Best Adapted Screenplay	Nominated

Capri Hollywood Awards                

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2013	August: Osage County	Ensemble Cast	Won

Cinema Writers Circle Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2012	Blackthorn	Best Actor	Nominated

Critics’ Choice Movie Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2013	August: Osage County	Best Acting Ensemble	Nominated

Detroit Film Critics Society Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2013	August: Osage County	Best Ensemble	Nominated

Drama Desk Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1983	True West	Outstanding Play	Nominated
1986	A Lie of the Mind		Won
2000	True West	Outstanding Revival of a Play	Nominated

Emmy Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
Primetime Emmy Awards
1999	Dash and Lilly	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Nominated

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2013	Mud	Robert Altman Award	Won

Golden Globe Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1999	Dash and Lilly	Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV	Nominated

Gradiva Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1997	When the World Was Green	Best Play	Won

Guggenheim Fellowship Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1968	Himself	Creative Arts – Drama & Performance Art	Won

Hollywood Film Festival Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2013	August: Osage County	Ensemble of the Year	Won

Lone Star Film & Television Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1997	Lily Dale	Best TV Supporting Actor	Won

Lucille Lortel Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2010	A Lie of the Mind	Outstanding Revival	Nominated

New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1986	A Lie of the Mind	Best Play	Won

Obie Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1966	Chicago	Best Distinguished Play(s)	Won
	Icarus’s Mother
	Red Cross
1967	La Turista		Won
1968	Forensic and the Navigator		Won
	Melodrama Play
1973	The Tooth of Crime		Won
1975	Action	Best Playwriting	Won
1977	Curse of the Starving Class	Best New American Play	Won
1979	Buried Child	Best Playwriting	Won
1980	Himself	Sustained Achievement Award	Won
1984	Fool for Love	Best New American Play	Won
		Best Direction	Won

Olivier Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1987	A Lie of the Mind	Play of the Year	Nominated

Outer Critics Circle Award Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1986	A Lie of the Mind	Best Off-Broadway Play	Won

PEN American Center Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2009	Himself	PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award	Won

Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2001	Black Hawk Down	Best Acting Ensemble	Nominated
2013	August: Osage County		Nominated

Pulitzer Prizes

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1979	Buried Child	Drama	Won
1983	True West		Nominated
1984	Fool for Love		Nominated

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2007	Ruffian	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries	Nominated
2013	August: Osage County	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Nominated

Tokyo International Film Festival Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1993	Silent Tongue	Grand Prix	Nominated

Tony Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
1996	Buried Child	Best Play	Nominated
2000	True West		Nominated

Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2013	August: Osage County	Best Acting Ensemble	Nominated

Western Heritage Awards                                                                             

Year	Nominated work	Category	Result
2000	Purgatory	Bronze Wrangler for TV Feature Film	Won

Sam Shepard Net Worth

He had a net worth of $10 million.

Sam Shepard Images | Sam Shepard Photos

Sam Shepard Quotes

• To sit on a ranch horse that’s been broken in, it’s like getting in a Porsche.
• 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.
• In real life, we don’t know what’s going to happen next. So how can you be that way on a stage? Being alive to the possibility of not knowing exactly how everything is going to happen next – if you can find places to have that happen onstage, it can resonate with an experience of living.
• 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.
• 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.
• Writing for the theatre is so different from writing for anything else. Because what you write is eventually going to be spoken. That’s why I think so many really powerful novelists can’t write a play – because they don’t understand that it’s spoken – that it hits the air. They don’t get that.

Read more at brainyquote.com

Sam Shepard Movies

Sam Shepard Twitter

Rest In Peace Sam Shepard.

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) August 1, 2017

Sam Shepard Facebook

Sam Shepard Interview

THE WEIRD STENOGRAPHER: SAM SHEPARD ON HIS LONG WRITING LIFE

Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor, and American avant-garde icon died Thursday at his home in Kentucky from complications from Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 73. He often spoke of writing as his “salvation,” and if his prolific catalog of work is to be believed, he sought that salvation constantly—and in turn, brought it to others with his moving, often surreal works of outcast art. Though famously hesitant to give interviews, he has, over the years, spoken in a number of places about his writing practice, the books he loved and authors who changed him, the life of the writer, and his relationship with literary inspiration. Here, I’ve collected some of his wisest and funniest words on the craft.

On what made him want to become a writer:

Oddly enough, it was reading Eugene O’Neill. I’d read Long Day’s Journey Into Night [1956], and I remember seeing Sidney Lumet’s black-and-white film adaptation [released in 1962], which I still think is one of the best adaptations of anything—of a book, of a play—ever done. . . But I remember being struck by the idea that it was a play, so I read the play and I read about O’Neill, and in an odd way, there was something that I connected with there . . . There was something wrong with the family. There was a demonic thing going on that nobody could put their finger on, but everybody knew the ship was sinking. Everybody was going down, and nobody knew why or how, and they were all taking desperate measures to stay afloat. So I thought there was something about that felt similar to my own background, and I felt I could maybe write some version of that. (from an interview with Michael Almereyda in Interview, 2011)

On the very first thing he ever wrote: