“Childhood is a tricky business. Usually, something goes wrong.”
Business
“I've convinced myself - I hope I'm right - that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth.”
HopeAll Quotes by Maurice Sendak
“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“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“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“What I do as best I can is out of a deep respect for children, for how difficult their world is.”
Respect“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“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“I hate those e-books. They can not be the future... they may well be... I will be dead.”
Future“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“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“I hate those e-books. They cannot be the future. They may well be.”
Future“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“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“I'm not afraid of death.”
Death“The distinctions of fine art bore me to death.”
Death“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“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“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