“I hate endings. Just detest them. Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster.

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.” - Sam Shepard (November 5, 1943 - July 30, 2017).

Mr. Shepard was a playwright extraordinaire whose work carried a poetic voice full of passion, soul, desperation and sometimes heartbreak, that could rip right through you. He was also a director and fine actor.

In all, he wrote of forty-four plays (he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for "Buried Child") along with short stories, essays, and memoirs. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff."

Sam Shepard seemed to disappear for a while. It turns out, he was quietly dealing with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) - that most cruel disease, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, that leaves the mind intact while shutting down the ability to move and then, at the end, to breathe.

Bravo for your work, your intelligence, your creative vision, Mr. Shepard. Here's hoping that final ending is revolving towards another - genius – beginning somewhere in the cosmos.

Mr. Shepard went to that great opening night in the sky on July 30, 2017. He was 73.