Maurice Sendak

"There must be more to life than having everything!"

"An illustrator in my own mind — and this is not a truth of any kind — is someone who so falls in love with writing that he wishes he had written it, and the closest he can get to is illustrating it. And the next thing you learn, you have to find something unique in this book, which perhaps even the author was not entirely aware of. And that’s what you hold on to, and that’s what you add to the pictures: a whole Other Story that you believe in, that you think is there."

"I believe there is no part of our lives, our adult as well as child life, when were not fantasizing, but we prefer to relegate fantasy to children, as though it were some tomfoolery only fit for the immature minds of the young. Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do."

"Hitler made a film about "Hitler gives a camp to the Jews". And they look all shiny. And theyre drawing. And theyre playing volleyball. And people are dancing. And people are having a wonderful time. And everybody fell for it."

"I often went to bed without supper cause I hated my mothers cooking. So, to go to bed without supper was not a torture to me. If she was gonna hurt me, shed make me eat."

"You cannot write for children... Theyre much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them."

"Weve educated children to think that spontaneity is inappropriate. Children are willing to expose themselves to experiences. We arent. Grownups always say they protect their children, but theyre really protecting themselves. Besides, you cant protect children. They know everything."

"I dont believe in things literally for children. Thats a reduction."

"When you hide another story in a story, that’s the story I am telling the children."

"Im not Hans Christian Andersen. Nobodys gonna make a statue in the park with a lot of scrambling kids climbing up me. I wont have it, okay?"

"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 cant explain — I dont need to. I know that if theres 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. Im here to take note of. And that is beyond my ego, beyond anything that belongs to me, an observer, an observer."

"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!""