Why is my needle stuck in childhood? I don't know why. I guess it's because that's where my heart is. Maurice Sendak More Quotes by Maurice Sendak More Quotes From Maurice Sendak We're supposed to be civilized. We're supposed to go to work every day. We're supposed to be nice to our friends and send Christmas cards to our parents. Maurice Sendak christmas-card nice parent I think there is something barbaric in children, and it's missing in lots of books for them because we don't like to think of it. We want them to be happy [but] childhood is a very tough time. Maurice Sendak book children thinking You can start making up any kind of story if you want to. Maurice Sendak kind stories want All I liked to do when I was a kid was draw. Maurice Sendak draws kids Thank God that Bumble-Ardy's parents are dead so we don't have to wonder what they did to him. We only know that they were famous, and famous people have unhappy children for the most part. They don't have the time to take care of them. So he's a troubled pig-boy, a kid you've got to watch. Maurice Sendak boys kids children Bumble-Ardy is a very wicked little child as far as I'm concerned. He's not to be trusted. Maurice Sendak wicked littles children One of the beauties of being an artist is that you can create a whole new world, with circumstances that are better in your invented world than they are in the real world. Maurice Sendak artist real world I want to see me to the end working, living for myself. Ripeness is all. Maurice Sendak ripeness ends want We all want to be renewed, don't we? Maurice Sendak want Life has only gotten better personally for me as I've gotten older. I mean, being young was such a gross waste of time. I was just such a miserable, miserable person. Maurice Sendak miserable-person waste mean I've always loved pigs: the shape of them, the look of them, and the fact that they are so intelligent. Maurice Sendak intelligent pigs looks 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 granted people world there is no such thing as fantasy unrelated to reality Maurice Sendak fantasy reality It was a very difficult time. I was working on [umble-Ardy] when my partner and friend was dying of cancer. We set up a room in the house to be like a hospital room. Eugene died, and then I had bypass surgery. I was doing the book to stay sane while all this was going on. Maurice Sendak cancer house book We're animals. We're violent. We're criminal. We're not so far away from the gorillas and the apes, those beautiful creatures. Maurice Sendak criminals animal beautiful I often went to bed without supper cause I hated my mother's cooking. So, to go to bed without supper was not a torture to me. If she was gonna hurt me, she'd make me eat. Maurice Sendak cooking hurt mother Girls are infinitely more complicated than boys, and women more than men. Maurice Sendak girl men boys A whole new world of Italian music was springing up, and [Giuseppe] Verdi was seen as old. Boito got Verdi all excited about the possibility of doing another opera, another kind of opera. In fact, Verdi composed his two best operas, Otello and Falstaff, in his eighties. Maurice Sendak opera italian two 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. Maurice Sendak believe lying children I did not know how to paint a mural. I did not know how to prepare the surface. There was nobody from the Renaissance around who could advise me, and I did the best I could. Maurice Sendak renaissance surface paint
