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Maurice Sendak [1928-2012] American

Rank: 102
Artist, Illustrator

Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He became widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963.

Happiness, Mom, Alone, Anger, Business, Dad, Death, Health, Humor, Movies

Quote	Tags	Rank
There must be more to life than having everything.		101
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.	Death	102
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.	Happiness, Movies	103
I want to be alone and work until the day my heads hits the drawing table and I'm dead. Kaput. I feel very much like I want to be with my brother and sister again. They're nowhere. I know they're nowhere and they don't exist, but if nowhere means that's where they are, that's where I want to be.	Alone	104
Mothers and children are human beings, and they will sometimes do the wrong thing.	Mom	105
Most children - I know I did when I was a kid - fantasize another set of parents. Or fantasize no parents. They don't tell their real parents about that - you don't want to tell Mom and Dad. Kids lead a very private life. And I was a typical child, I think. I was a liar.	Dad, Mom	106
I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness.	Happiness	107
Childhood is a tricky business. Usually, something goes wrong.	Business	108
I'm totally crazy, I know that.		109
You cannot write for children They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.		110
I have to accept my role. I will never kill myself like Vincent Van Gogh. Nor will I paint beautiful water lilies like Monet. I can't do that. I'm in the idiot role of being a kiddie book person.		111
I'm sick of 'Wild Things.'		112
Grown-ups are afraid for children. It's not children who are afraid.		113
There's so much more to a book than just the reading.		114
I've always loved pigs: the shape of them, the look of them, and the fact that they are so intelligent.		115
I did not know how to paint a mural. I did not know how to prepare the surface. There was nobody from the Renaissance around who could advise me, and I did the best I could.		116
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.		117
You know who my gods are, who I believe in fervently? Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson - she's probably the top - Mozart, Shakespeare, Keats. These are wonderful gods who have gotten me through the narrow straits of life.		118
I grew up in a house that was in a constant state of mourning.		119
Parents shouldn't assume children are made out of sugar candy and will break and collapse instantly. Kids don't. We do.		120
All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy.		121
Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences.		122
My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.	Humor	123
The distinctions of fine art bore me to death.		124
My life in Brooklyn was in constant danger because of my bad health.	Health	125
As a kid, all I thought about was death.		126
I had a brother who was my savior, made my childhood bearable.		201
I'm not obsessed with angels but I do adore angels.		202
Newt Gingrich is an idiot of great renown... There's something so hopelessly gross and vile about him it's hard to take him seriously.		203
I can't believe I've turned into a typical old man. I can't believe it. I was young just minutes ago.		204
People from New York have been calling, to see if I'm still alive. When I answer the phone, you can hear the disappointment in their voice.		205
I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents! It's an art form. I talk a lot. And I think a lot. And I draw a lot. But never in a million years would I have been a parent. That's just work that's too hard.		206
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.		207
There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.		208
I want to write something so simple, so short and so silly... and I want it to be for my brother.		209
I'm not Hans Christian Anderson. Nobody's gonna make a statue in the park with a lot of scrambling kids climbing up me. I won't have it, okay?		210
It's no fun being lonely.		211
My parents were ignorant peasants from the Old World.		212
What I do as best I can is out of a deep respect for children, for how difficult their world is.		213
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.		214
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.		215
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.		216
As a kid, all I thought about was death. But you can't tell your parents that.		217
My work is not great, but it's respectable. I have no false illusions.		218
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.		219
That always seemed to be the most critical test that a child was confronted with - loss of parents, loss of direction, loss of love. Can you live without a mother and a father?		220
I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents!		221
I don't write for children. I write and someone says it's for children.		222
I'm scared of watching a TV show about vampires. I can't fall asleep.		223
Parents shouldn't assume children are made out of sugar candy and will break and collapse instantly.		224
Kids are so shrewd.		225
We're animals. We're violent. We're criminal.		226
We're supposed to do all these things which trouble us deeply because it's so against what we naturally would want to do.		301
I would infinitely prefer a daughter.		302
Things come to you without you necessarily knowing what they mean.		303
Girls are infinitely more complicated than boys and women more than men. And there's no doubt about that. We just don't like to think about it. Certainly the men don't like to think about it.		304
My being gay was something of not great interest to me.		305
I don't believe in an afterlife but I still fully expect to see my brother again.		306
A book is a book is a book.		307
I can't believe I've turned into a typical old man.		308
I'm an illustrator. I have to accept my role.		309
I have a good life.		310
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.		311
I don't have kids at all and I thank God that I never did.		312
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.		313
The world is twice as crazy as it's ever been.		314
I do not remember any proper children's books in my childhood. I was not exposed to them.		315
All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.		316
I refuse to lie to children.		317
In plain terms, a child is a complicated creature who can drive you crazy. There's a cruelty to childhood, there's an anger.	Anger	318
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.		319
You can't write masterpieces in your 80s and be happy too.		320
I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.		321
'Hansel and Gretel' is one of the scariest stories ever written! Psychotic mother; stupid, inane father.		322
If life is so critical, if Anne Frank could die, if my friend could die, children were as vulnerable as adults, and that gave me a secret purpose to my work, to make them live. Because I wanted to live. I wanted to grow up.		323
I only have one subject. The question I am obsessed with is: How do children survive?		324
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.		325
I hate those e-books. They can not be the future... they may well be... I will be dead.		326
I became a set designer for opera.		401
Most children - I know I did when I was a kid - fantasize another set of parents. Or fantasize no parents. They don't tell their real parents about that - you don't want to tell Mom and Dad.		402
Kids lead a very private life.		403
I hate people.		404
I feel extremely vulnerable.		405
I feel like I don't have a lot of time left.		406
You don't want to do something that's all terrifying.		407
I hate those e-books. They cannot be the future. They may well be.		408
I didn't have much confidence in myself... never.		409
Do parents sit down and tell their kids everything? I don't know. I don't know.		410
I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.		411
I am not a religious person, nor do I have any regrets.		412
Finding out that I was gay when I was older was a shock and a disappointment.		413
I was miserable as a kid.		414
I don't need faith.		415
I'm not a religious person.		416
I'm not afraid of death.		417
I wanted to be acknowledged as an artist, not just some kiddie-book artist.		418
It dawned on me that art was the way I could survive.		419
I'm still as enamored and turned on by work as I was when I was young.		420
I have this idiot name tag which says 'controversial.'		421
My father belonged to a Jewish social club.		422
I'm a lucky buck.		423
There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.		424
Yes, there have to be places for safe wonderful stories.		425
My work is not great, but it's respectable.		426
My therapies went on forever.		501
I cry a lot because I miss people.		502
My parents were very indiscrete.		503
I stress character, character, character.		504

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