“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
“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.”
DadAll Quotes by Maurice Sendak
“Childhood is a tricky business. Usually, something goes wrong.”
Business“There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.”
Music“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“I'm not afraid of death.”
Death“I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.”
Music“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.”
Art“As a kid, all I thought about was death.”
Death“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“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.”
Trust“My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.”
Humor“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 don't need faith.”
Faith“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“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“I hate those e-books. They can not be the future... they may well be... I will be dead.”
Future“I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.”
Hope“As a kid, all I thought about was death. But you can't tell your parents that.”
Death“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 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.”
Money