Maurice Sendak Quotes

There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.

I grew up in a house that was in a constant state of mourning.

I do not remember any proper children's books in my childhood. I was not exposed to them.

My father belonged to a Jewish social club.

There's a mystery there, a clue, a nut, a bolt, and if I put it together, I find me.

I'm scared of watching a TV show about vampires. I can't fall asleep.

Do parents sit down and tell their kids everything? I don't know. I don't know. I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.

I became a set designer for opera.

Dreams raise the emotional level of what I'm doing at the moment.

You can't get rid of evil. We can't, and I feel that so intensely.

It's no fun being lonely.

And it's one of the sexiest things you will ever read of how slow you should take the peach. Don't rush it.

I had a brother who was my savior, made my childhood bearable.

I feel it in me like a woman having a baby, all that life churning inside me. I feel it every day; it moves, stretches, yawns. It's getting ready to be born. It knows exactly what it is.

I mean, being a child was being a child, was being a creature without power, without pocket money, without escape routes of any kind. So I didn't want to be a child.

Make it dangerous or it's not worth doing.

I'm totally crazy, I know that.

I have this idiot name tag which says 'controversial.'

We're animals. We're violent.

I don't believe in things literally for children. That's a reduction.

I wanted to be acknowledged as an artist, not just some kiddie-book artist.

There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.

You don't want to do something that's all terrifying.

Art has always been my salvation.

I remember how much - when I was a small boy I was taken to see a version of 'Peter Pan.' I detested it. I mean, the sentimental idea that anybody would want to remain a boy.

As a kid, all I thought about was death. But you can't tell your parents that.

William Blake really is important, my cornerstone. Nobody ever told me before he did that childhood was such a damned serious business.

I would infinitely prefer a daughter.

I wanted my wild things to be frightening.

My brother, who was older, was the gifted one, much more talented than I.

I'm not jaded. I never have been jaded. I've always been surprised at my success. I've always enjoyed it.

My big concern is me and what do I do now until the time of my death. That is valid. That is useful. That is beautiful. That is creative.

I want to be free again. I want to be free like when I was a kid, working with my brother and making toy airplanes and a whole model of the World's Fair in 1939 out of wax.

Venturing back further, learning is so slow. Accomplishment is so slow. Experiencing and evaluating your experience is so slow.

The fan mail I get from kids are asking me questions which they do not ask their mothers and fathers. Because if they had, why write to me, a perfect stranger?

I had been reading a fabulous book [The Man Verdi, by Frank Walker] about [Giuseppe] Verdi, whom I adore.

I thought that if I were going into old age I would want to do what [Giuseppe] Verdi did, which is to write extraordinary things, and to really find myself.

I really don't like the city anymore. You get pushed and harassed and people grope you. It's too tumultuous. It's too crazy.

I have nothing now but praise for my life. I'm not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more...

It is sometimes hard to be a family.

You cannot write for children. They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.

I refuse to lie to children. I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.

William Blake really is important my cornerstone. Nobody ever told me before he did that childhood was such a damned serious business.

There must be more to life than having everything!