Quotes from Maurice Sendak

There must be more to life than having everything.

Truthfullness to life—both fantasy life and factual life—is the basis of all great art.

Max dijo QUIETOS y los amansó con el truco mágico de mirar fijamente a los ojos amarillos de todos ellos sin pestañear una sola vez y se asustaron y dijeron que era el más monstruo de todos.

Herman Melville said that artists have to take a dive, and either you hit your head on a rock and it splits your skull and you die, or, that blow to your head is so inspiring that you come back up and you do the best work you ever did. But — you have to take the dive. And you do not know what the result will be.

And the wild things...gnashed their terrible teeth ...

Oh please don't go- we'll eat you up- we love you so!

Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him—and it was still hot.

It is sometimes hard to be a family.

I will lead you by a shorter way. You will be with your mother soon, but you will find the going hard.

I am finding out as I am aging that I am in love with the world.

Se acabó! dijo Max, y envió a los monstruos a la cama sin cenar. Y Max, el rey de todos los monstruos se sintió solo y quería estar donde alguien lo quisiera más que a nadie. Entonces desde el otro lado del mundo lo envolvió un olor de comida rica y ya no quiso ser el rey del lugar donde viven los monstruos.

Where the Wild Things Are was not meant to please everybody – only children. A letter from a seven-year-old boy encourages me to think that I have reached children as I had hoped. He wrote: 'How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive my sister and I want to spend the summer there. Please answer soon.' I did not answer that question, for I have no doubt that sooner or later they will find their way, free of charge.

I have nothing now but praise for my life. I'm not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more. ... What I dread is the isolation. ... There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready.

I am not a religious person, nor do I have any regrets. The war took care of the for me.

Books don't go out of fashion with children. They just go out of fashion with adults and publishers.

We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway. To let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel. While I am here.

I want to write something so simple, so short and so silly... and I want it to be for my brother.

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

You cannot write for children They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.

Mothers and children are human beings, and they will sometimes do the wrong thing.

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.

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.

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.

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