“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
“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.”
ArtAll Quotes by Maurice Sendak
“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.”
Dad“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“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.”
Experience“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“I hate those e-books. They cannot be the future. They may well be.”
Future“As a kid, all I thought about was death. But you can't tell your parents that.”
Death“There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.”
Music“Childhood is a tricky business. Usually, something goes wrong.”
Business“I don't need faith.”
Faith“The distinctions of fine art bore me to death.”
Death“I'm not afraid of death.”
Death“What I do as best I can is out of a deep respect for children, for how difficult their world is.”
Respect“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.”
Hope“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“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.”
Women“My life in Brooklyn was in constant danger because of my bad health.”
Health“I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.”
Hope“My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.”
Humor“I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.”
Music