Maurice Sendak

There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.

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.

Yes, there have to be places for safe wonderful stories.

We're supposed to do all these things which trouble us deeply because it's so against what we naturally would want to do.

I don't have kids at all and I thank God that I never did.

I was miserable as a kid.

Do parents sit down and tell their kids everything? I don't know. I don't know.

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?

Kids are so shrewd.

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.

My being gay was something of not great interest to me.

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.