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.

Then from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat, so he gave up being king of the wild things.

William Blake really is important, my cornerstone. Nobody ever told me before he did that childhood was such a damned serious business.

Kids never get pissed at their parents. Unheard of.

Art has always been my salvation.

As a kid, all I thought about was death. But you can't tell your parents that.

I 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.