Maurice Sendak
Artist
1928-06-10
Books by Maurice Sendak
-
Where the Wild Things Are
View on Amazon -
In the Night Kitchen
View on Amazon -
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Quotes by Maurice Sendak
-
so that it isn't upsetting to anybody. It's something we've always known about fairy tales – they talk about incest, the Oedipus complex, about psychotic mothers, like those of Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, who throw their children out. They tell things about life which children know instinctively, and the pleasure and relief lie in finding these things expressed in language that children can live with. You can't eradicate these feelings – they exist and they're a great source of creative inspiration.
Read quote -
[There are] games children must conjure up to combat an awful fact of childhood: the fact of their vulnerability to fear, anger, hate and frustration - all the emotions that are an ordinary part of their lives and that they can perceive only as as ungovernable and dangerous forces. To master these forces, children turn to fantasy: that imagined world where disturbing emotional situations are solved to their satisfaction.
Read quote -
You cannot write for children. They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.
Read quote -
But the wild things cried, "Oh please don't go - we'll eat you up - we love you so!"And Max said, "No!"The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws but Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye.
Read quote -
Childhood is cannibals and psychotics vomiting in your mouth!
Read quote -
I refuse to lie to children. I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.
Read quote -
It is sometimes hard to be a family.
Read quote -
And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming wild things.
Read quote -
. . .from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.
Read quote -
It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything.
Read quote -
I remember my own childhood vividly...I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them
Read quote -
Each month is gay,Each season nice,When eatingChicken soupWith rice
Read quote -
The day after Paul Newman was dead, he was twice as dead.
Read quote -
Sendak is in search of what he calls a yummy death. William Blake set the standard, jumping up from his death bed at the last minute to start singing. A happy death, says Sendak. It can be done. He lifts his eyebrows to two peaks. If you're William Blake and totally crazy.
Read quote -
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...
Read quote -
And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.
Read quote -
And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming wild things.
Read quote -
[There are] games children must conjure up to combat an awful fact of childhood: the fact of their vulnerability to fear, anger, hate and frustration - all the emotions that are an ordinary part of their lives and that they can perceive only as as ungovernable and dangerous forces. To master these forces, children turn to fantasy: that imagined world where disturbing emotional situations are solved to their satisfaction.
Read quote -
Each month is gay,Each season nice,When eatingChicken soupWith rice
Read quote -
It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything.
Read quote