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 SendakWe're animals. We're violent. We're criminal. We're not so far away from the gorillas and the apes, those beautiful creatures.
Maurice SendakThe magic of childhood is the strangeness of childhood โ the uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don't see.
Maurice SendakI had lost my sister recently, too, which meant that my whole family was gone. I was the baby of the family. There were five Sendaks and there were five Wild Things, and now there's only one Sendak, and he's about to bite the dust, too! Life, as I said before, was very difficult at that time and so it was natural that there would be a change in the look of things. Also, I was very impressed with my own strength in doing this under the circumstances in which I was living.
Maurice SendakOnce a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my childrenโs letters โ sometimes very hastily โ but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, โDear Jim: I loved your card.โ Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, โJim loved your card so much he ate it.โ That to me was one of the highest compliments Iโve ever received. He didnโt care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.
Maurice Sendak