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.

The magic of childhood is the strangeness of childhood — the uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don't see.

It is a blessing to get old. It is a blessing to find the time to do the things, to read the books, to listen to the music. I have nothing now but praise for my life.

We're animals. We're violent. We're criminal. And if I've done anything, I've had kids express themselves as they are.

And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.

A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.

Sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup with rice.