In my obituary of Kramer, who died Wednesday at the age of 84, I mulled what people invariably mention most about Kramer: his anger.

Kramer, both artist and activist, was dedicated to a better world for LGBTQ people and people with AIDS.

Those who knew him saw that passion up close—working on his landmark play The Normal Heart or alongside him at ACT UP—and so much more.

Below, in emotional interviews, actors, activists, and friends—including Ellen Barkin, Joel Grey, Anthony Rapp, Matt Bomer, and Daryl Roth—share their memories of Larry Kramer.

Ellen Barkin (The Normal Heart, 2011).

I have many important memories of Larry.

For the 16 weeks The Normal Heart ran on Broadway (in 2011, for which Barkin won a Tony Award for her role as Emma Brookner, a physician), Larry never missed a performance.

One day the stage manager said, “We’re going to change out the broken pocket thing.” And they did, and I did the performance that night, after which Larry burst into my dressing room and demanded, “Who changed that pocket?” .

I said, “It was worn, there were holes in it.”.

“That doesn’t matter,” Larry said.

Larry Kramer had the spirit of a kid as an 80-year-old.

I think we all became Larry.

You know how many kids come up to me and say, “I stood at that theater and waited for Larry Kramer to sign my program, and he gave me a leaflet and I still have it.”.

For months we lived inside the power of Larry Kramer.

I met Larry for the first time on the Charlie Rose show in the late 1980s, or early 1990s.

It’s Larry fucking Kramer.” I’m like, “Oh, this is great, this is the act I have to follow.” I have been in New York since I was born.

I new exactly who Larry Kramer was?

I was just flattened, I didn’t want to go out there.

I do not believe that one person can change the world, but Larry Kramer changed me.

Without Larry Kramer I couldn’t have opened my mouth in 2018 (when Barkin alluded on Twitter to an incident involving Terry Gilliam in an elevator).

I couldn’t have helped any of my girlfriends if it wasn’t for Larry Kramer.

Larry Kramer taught me to open my mouth and not close it until you saw change.

It had meant so much to us to have done The Normal Heart on Broadway, and I know it meant an enormous amount to Larry.

The idea that a little nothing like me could bring something to Larry fucking Kramer: oh my god, thank you.

Sembène took a big pause, and said very calmly, “My rage is my freedom, my rage is my art.”And that is Larry Kramer.

Larry Kramer is a fucking 20th-century American hero, who taught everyone who came into contact with him how to do the right thing, and to do the right thing.

I loved the story, which he liked to tell, of being in the elevator with his dog and (former New York mayor) Ed Koch, and telling his dog that this was the man “killing all of daddy’s friends.” Larry and I both had Wheaten terriers.

Larry said he loved it even more when the elevator was crowded.

Well, no, Ed Koch would not be where Larry Kramer was, and should they be together I think Larry Kramer would get all the good people, and Ed Koch would have to go down below where he belongs?

Larry just flipped that switch for me, and every time I open my mouth I feel guilty that I can’t be as courageous as Larry could be.

That is what Larry Kramer taught me.

Where is our Larry Kramer.

There was only one Larry Kramer, just like there was only one Malcolm X.

And there is no Larry Kramer now.

I think he liked me very much.

Larry lived just as what he fought for: every human being deserves respect.

Larry Kramer was a grown adult who dedicated his life to something.

I don’t have much respect for hide-behind-the-door types, and that’s not Larry.

I once met him with a friend of mine, who he didn’t know and who wasn’t famous, and Larry just chatted to them.

He felt about Trump the way everyone else does, but more so because this was Larry Kramer.

And I kind of learned over time there was literally no stopping Larry Kramer.

At the beginning of the #MeToo movement, I felt strongly that what I should do was call out the names of everyone I knew who was bad, but maybe I didn’t have the proof and honestly I am not as courageous as Larry Kramer.

I think Larry had that effect on all of us.

I look at Mark Ruffalo (who starred in the movie adaptation of The Normal Heart) and I say, “I see Larry there, I see you.” I always see Larry in Joe Mantello.

I think for Larry, love was a huge force in his life.

(the bookstore), and thinking, “Oh, this is Larry Kramer, loving me, kissing me.

Joel Grey (The Normal Heart, 1985).

I first saw The Normal Heart in previews.

I said to Larry, “I want to be part of this.

I talked to Larry often.

That’s what made The Normal Heart what it was.

I first met Larry at a Lambda Legal party in the early 1980s.

Would we have had a different epidemic if it hadn’t been for Larry Kramer.

I produced David Drake’s semi-autobiographical play, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me.

Larry would want people to get out of their moment, and look beyond the rainbow this-and-that, and to look at the larger arc of history and the dangers we face and how much we are hated and despised. .

Matt Bomer (The Normal Heart, 2014 movie).

I met Larry in 1988.

His legacy is to never settle for crumbs, and to think of LGBTQ people as needing to be completely equal and deserving of their civil rights—not having a place carved out for them, and not being satisfied with tokens.

Now, Donald Trump is taking everything away from us again, and Larry would want people to be enraged, fighting back, standing up, and cutting through the lies of the Trump administration.

Daryl Roth, producer, The Normal Heart (Broadway, 2011).

I think he willed himself to stay here until he just couldn’t any more.

I met Larry at a 25th anniversary benefit reading of The Normal Heart.

I said to Larry that we ought to revive the play, which now seemed prescient and important for a younger generation to understand whose shoulders they stood on.

The Normal Heart was personal, but The Destiny of Me was even more personal in many ways because it was about his family

Then Faggots, The Normal Heart, and The Destiny of Me were artistic responses

I spent time with Larry and David (Webster, his husband) in Provincetown, and in 2016, I got him to come speak to a class I teach on the history of AIDS

Larry said, “I’m too old