Sam Shepard looked like a cowboy and wrote like a poet.
He was someone who could act and direct and write at such a high level.
Hes a poet of the first order.
Credit: Charles Sykes/AP Photo; Inset: Juan Naharro Gimenez/WireImage
I first saw a production ofTrue Westwhen I was 14.
That production did for my generation what Brando andStreetcarhad done for a generation earlier.
The first time I met him I was 24.
What a lot of young people get wrong about Sam is that he wasntjustcool.
When you worked with him, he was a very serious person.
Hed come to rehearsal and talk about Greek myths and weird obscure playwrights.
He was disarmingly humble and wildly self-serious.
He could walk that razors edge.
Outside was Sam Shephard reading all the famous artist plaques on the wall.
Wed worked together a bunch already, and I invited him in for coffee.
Sam said hi and then, What do you gotta do to get a plaque on the wall?
I did some good writing here!
And Stanley said, Well, unfortunately, Mr. Shepard, you have to die.
And Sam went, I see Arthur Millers got one out there, and hes not dead.
Sam burst out laughingsohard.
In the years I knew him, he could be many different people.
He was a complicated person.
He was wise, and I think he got wise fighting a lot of things about himself.
He was a deeply curious person, always learning, always staying interested.
He was writing beautifully at the highest level even at the end.
I wish he hadnt been sick, and I really wish we could have worked together again.
It was always an honor.
