I know there are supposedly happy people in this world. I never believed it, but I take it for granted. God knows, they're all on television. Maurice Sendak More Quotes by Maurice Sendak More Quotes From Maurice Sendak My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony. Maurice Sendak sides witty father I'm scared of watching a TV show about vampires. I can't fall asleep. Maurice Sendak vampire tv-shows fall My father belonged to a Jewish social club. Maurice Sendak clubs social father Kids lead a very private life. Maurice Sendak private-life kids It was inconceivable to me as a child that I would be an adult. I mean, one assumed that it would happen, but obviously it didn't happen, or if it did, it happened when your back was turned, and then suddenly you were there. So I couldn't have thought about it much. Maurice Sendak mean children It is such an abundance of idiocy that you lose courage. That you lose hope. I don't want to lose hope. I get through every day. I'm pretty good. I work. I sleep. I sing. I walk. Maurice Sendak abundance want sleep I'm getting old. And I'm disappointed in everything just the way old people traditionally, boringly are. That bothers me because is it too traditional? Am I not fighting hard enough? I don't feel the fight. I don't feel it. Maurice Sendak fighting people way I'm not jaded. I never have been jaded. I've always been surprised at my success. I've always enjoyed it. Maurice Sendak jaded enjoyed has-beens My big concern is me and what do I do now until the time of my death. That is valid. That is useful. That is beautiful. That is creative. Maurice Sendak bigs creative beautiful I want to be free again. I want to be free like when I was a kid, working with my brother and making toy airplanes and a whole model of the World's Fair in 1939 out of wax. Maurice Sendak airplane brother kids I think that if in your heart, you are seeking out a real puzzle, and you're not looking to frighten anybody, you're not looking to upset anybody, and you're looking to discuss a subject that you yourself went through when you were nine - you just don't remember the difficulties of one's own childhood. Maurice Sendak real heart thinking I really don't like the city anymore. You get pushed and harassed and people grope you. It's too tumultuous. It's too crazy. Maurice Sendak crazy cities people All I liked to do when I was a kid was draw. My childhood was like my adult life: drawing pictures with my brother, putting the comics up on the glass window, and tracing the characters onto tracing paper or drawing paper and then coloring them. That and making things was all we ever did. Maurice Sendak brother character kids I had been reading a fabulous book [The Man Verdi, by Frank Walker] about [Giuseppe] Verdi, whom I adore. Maurice Sendak reading men book Then one day my sister abandoned me at the 1939 World's Fair, and that incident is the essence of In the Night Kitchen. I was standing there with hundreds of other people waving back at the little midgets dressed like bakers when I turned around and my sister was gone! The next thing I know I'm screaming and crying and policemen are taking me to a big place with tons of kids who had all been abandoned like me. At least I was old enough to give them a name and an address. Maurice Sendak essence night kids Bumble-Ardy looks like a happy book. That's the funniest thing about it. But this was survival. I was working very hard to survive. Maurice Sendak working-very-hard survival book God, I had great people in my life. Maurice Sendak great-people people The fan mail I get from kids are asking me questions which they do not ask their mothers and fathers. Because if they had, why write to me, a perfect stranger? Maurice Sendak mother writing father Venturing back further, learning is so slow. Accomplishment is so slow. Experiencing and evaluating your experience is so slow. Maurice Sendak accomplishment My sister had her own room. She also had innumerable boyfriends. I had a yo-yo collection that was beyond belief, and the reason I had it was mostly that I would stand in the doorway of the living room watching her and her boyfriend. Finally she caught on how to get this kid out of the way. Give him a yo-yo! Maurice Sendak doorways giving kids
