Sendak Maurice Quotes & Sayings

I have a good life. — Maurice Sendak

I've always loved the wild rumpus in 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak, because the words disappear, the pictures take up the whole page, and we move forward in the story by turning the pages. — Brian Selznick

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

The qualities that make for excellence in children's literature can be summed up in a single word: imagination. And imagination as it relates to the child is, to my mind, synonymous with fantasy. Contrary to most of the propaganda in books for the young, childhood is only partly a time of innocence. It is, in my opinion, a time of seriousness, bewilderment, and a good deal of suffering. It's also possibly the best of all times. Imagination for the child is the miraculous, freewheeling device he uses to course his way through the problems of every day ... It's through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. — Maurice Sendak

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

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

I'm not a religious person. — Maurice Sendak

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

My parents were ignorant peasants from the Old World. — Maurice Sendak

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

I don't want to lose hope. — Maurice Sendak

I'd like to believe an accumulation of experience has made me a sort of a grown-up person, so I can have judgment and taste and whatever. — Maurice Sendak

I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence. — Maurice Sendak

Childhood is cannibals and psychotics vomiting in your mouth! — Maurice Sendak

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

And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all. — Maurice Sendak

Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children's letters - sometimes very hastily - but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, "Dear Jim: I loved your card." Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, "Jim loved your card so much he ate it." That to me was one of the highest compliments I've ever received. He didn't care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it. — Maurice Sendak

Sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup with rice. — Maurice Sendak

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

Each month is gay, Each season nice, When eating Chicken soup With rice — Maurice Sendak

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

Kids never get pissed at their parents. Unheard of. — Maurice Sendak

All I liked to do when I was a kid was draw. — Maurice Sendak

Art has always been my salvation. And my gods are Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Mozart. I believe in them with all my heart. And when Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can't explain - I don't need to. I know that if there's a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart. Or if I walk in the woods and I see an animal, the purpose of my life was to see that animal. I can recollect it, I can notice it. I'm here to take note of. And that is beyond my ego, beyond anything that belongs to me, an observer, an observer. — Maurice Sendak

I cry a lot because I miss people. — Maurice Sendak

I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth. — Maurice Sendak

There's so much more to a book than just the reading. — Maurice Sendak

I don't write for children. I write and someone says it's for children. — Maurice Sendak

I think it is unnatural to think that there is such a thing as a blue-sky, white-clouded happy childhood for anybody. Childhood is a very, very tricky business of surviving it. Because if one thing goes wrong or anything goes wrong, and usually something goes wrong, then you are compromised as a human being. You're going to trip over that for a good part of your life. — Maurice Sendak

It is a blessing to get old. It is a blessing to find the time to do the things, to read the books, to listen to the music. I have nothing now but praise for my life. — Maurice Sendak

That's what art is. You don't make up stories. You live your life. — Maurice Sendak

Messages are the death of an honest literary transaction with children — Maurice Sendak

Finding out that I was gay when I was older was a shock and a disappointment. — Maurice Sendak

When I did 'Bumble-ardy,' I was so intensely aware of death. Eugene, my friend and partner, was dying here in the house when I did 'Bumble-ardy'. I did 'Bumble-ardy' to save myself. I did not want to die with him. I wanted to live, as any human being does. — Maurice Sendak

We all want to be renewed, don't we? — Maurice Sendak

To get a child's trust - you may know or not - is a very hard thing to do. They're so used to not believing adults - because adults tell tales and lies all the time. — Maurice Sendak

I only have one subject. The question I am obsessed with is: How do children survive? — Maurice Sendak

I don't have kids at all and I thank God that I never did. — Maurice Sendak

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

Kids are so shrewd. — Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak never - I remember he said something that was very striking because it's something I never thought about. I always loved his work, and he said, 'I don't really view myself as a children's book author. I just try and write about childhood as honestly as I can.' — Spike Jonze

My life in Brooklyn was in constant danger because of my bad health. — Maurice Sendak

We've educated children to think that spontaneity is inappropriate. Children are willing to expose themselves to experiences. We aren't. Grownups always say they protect their children, but they're really protecting themselves. Besides, you can't protect children. They know everything. — Maurice Sendak

When Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can't explain ... I don't need to. I know that if there's a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart. — Maurice Sendak

We're supposed to be civilized. We're supposed to go to work every day. We're supposed to be nice to our friends and send Christmas cards to our parents. — Maurice Sendak

We're animals. We're violent. — Maurice Sendak

There is no such thing as fantasy unrelated to reality — Maurice Sendak

All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. — Maurice Sendak

I'm an illustrator. I have to accept my role. — Maurice Sendak

I want to see me to the end working, living for myself. Ripeness is all. — Maurice Sendak

Children surviving childhood is my obsessive theme and my life's concern, — Maurice Sendak

My work is not great, but it's respectable. I have no false illusions. — Maurice Sendak

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 ... What I dread is the isolation ... There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. — Maurice Sendak

I feel like I don't have a lot of time left. — Maurice Sendak

Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do. — Maurice Sendak

I remember my own childhood vividly ... I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them — Maurice Sendak

Can you draw a picture on the blackboard when somebody doesn't want you to? asked the rooster promptly.
"Yes," answered Kenny," if you write them a very nice poem."
"What is an only goat?"
"A lonely goat," answered Kenny.
The rooster shut one eye and looked at Kenny.
"can you hear a horse on the roof?" he asked.
"If you know how to listen in the night," said Kenny.
"Can you fix a broken promise?"
"Yes," said Kenny,"if it only looks broken,but really isn't."
The rooster drew his head back into his feathers and whispered, "What is a very narrow escape?"
"When somebody almost stops loving you," Kenny whispered back. — Maurice Sendak

Peter Rabbit, for all its gentle tininess, loudly proclaims that no story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it is not a work of imagination. — Maurice Sendak

If I have an unusual gift, it's not that I draw particularly better than other people - I've never fooled myself about that. Rather it's that I remember things other people don't recall: the sounds and feelings and images - the emotional quality - of particular moments in childhood. Happily an essential part of myself - my dreaming life - still lives in the light of childhood. — Maurice Sendak

I never set out to write books for children. I don't have a feeling that I'm gonna save children or my life is devoted. — Maurice Sendak

Knowledge is the driving force that puts creative passion to work. — Maurice Sendak

My therapies went on forever. — Maurice Sendak

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

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

I'll eat you up! — Maurice Sendak

I've always loved pigs: the shape of them, the look of them, and the fact that they are so intelligent. — Maurice Sendak

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. — Maurice Sendak

Life has only gotten better personally for me as I've gotten older. I mean, being young was such a gross waste of time. I was just such a miserable, miserable person. — Maurice Sendak

One of the beauties of being an artist is that you can create a whole new world, with circumstances that are better in your invented world than they are in the real world. — Maurice Sendak

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

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

Ursula Nordstrom was famous for finding artists in unlikely places. Maurice Sendak was a window designer, and she just came across one of his windows. Everyone was looking to find a talent. — Peter Sis

I think there is something barbaric in children, and it's missing in lots of books for them because we don't like to think of it. We want them to be happy [but] childhood is a very tough time. — Maurice Sendak

Emeralds,' said the rabbit. 'Emeralds make a lovely gift. — Maurice Sendak

It is such an abundance of idiocy that you lose courage. That you lose hope. I don't want to lose hope. I get through every day. I'm pretty good. I work. I sleep. I sing. I walk. — Maurice Sendak

F**k them is what I say. I hate those ebooks. They can not be the future. They may well be. I will be dead. I won't give a s**t. — Maurice Sendak

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. — Maurice Sendak

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

My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony. — Maurice Sendak

And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws. — Maurice Sendak

I don't need faith. — Maurice Sendak

Oh, please don't go - we'll eat you up - we love you so! — Maurice Sendak

I refuse to lie to children. — Maurice Sendak

I have a little tiny Emily Dickinson so big that I carry in my pocket everywhere. And you just read three poems of Emily. She is so brave. She is so strong. She is such a sexy, passionate, little woman. I feel better. — Maurice Sendak

My parents were very indiscrete. — Maurice Sendak

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out. — Maurice Sendak

The world is twice as crazy as it's ever been. — Maurice Sendak

Truthfullness to life-both fantasy life and factual life-is the basis of all great art. — Maurice Sendak

It's no fun being lonely. — Maurice Sendak

I have this idiot name tag which says 'controversial.' — Maurice Sendak

I write books that seem more suitable for children, and that's OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think. — Maurice Sendak

Kids lead a very private life. — Maurice Sendak

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. — Maurice Sendak

They leave me and I love them more. — Maurice Sendak

Sendak is in search of what he calls a "yummy death". William Blake set the standard, jumping up from his death bed at the last minute to start singing. "A happy death," says Sendak. "It can be done." He lifts his eyebrows to two peaks. "If you're William Blake and totally crazy. — Maurice Sendak

A book is a book is a book. — Maurice Sendak

Oh, I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness. You went to the movies then, you saw two movies and a short. When Mickey Mouse came on the screen and there was his big head, my sister said she had to hold onto me. I went berserk. — Maurice Sendak

I'm writing a poem right now about a nose. I've always wanted to write a poem about a nose. But it's a ludicrous subject. That's why, when I was younger, I was afraid of something that didn't make a lot of sense. But now I'm not. I have nothing to worry about. It doesn't matter. — Maurice Sendak

I didn't have much confidence in myself ... never. — Maurice Sendak

Childhood is a tricky business. Usually something goes wrong. — Maurice Sendak