Maurice Sendak

“Kids don't know about best sellers. They go for what they enjoy. They aren't star chasers and they don't suck up. It's why I like them.”

“The day after Paul Newman was dead, he was twice as dead.”

“It is sometimes hard to be a family.”

“I can't believe I've turned into a typical old man.”

“My work is not great, but it's respectable. I have no false illusions.”

“I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents!”

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

“My parents were very indiscrete.”

“I refuse to lie to children.”

“I can't believe I've turned into a typical old man. I can't believe it. I was young just minutes ago.”

“. . .from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.”

“Finding out that I was gay when I was older was a shock and a disappointment.”

“I'm not a religious person.”

“Parents shouldn't assume children are made out of sugar candy and will break and collapse instantly. Kids don't. We do.”

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

“I'm totally crazy, I know that.”

“I stress character, character, character.”

“We're supposed to do all these things which trouble us deeply because it's so against what we naturally would want to do.”

“I became a set designer for opera.”

“I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness.”