My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.

Knowledge is the driving force that puts creative passion to work.

For my father the one calamity was that my brother and sister and I never learned to swim. My father, who was very macho, was a strong swimmer and was terribly disappointed to have children who didn't swim. Once when my mother was sitting in a beach chair - I can still see the big umbrella - she called to my father, "Throw them in! Throw them in! They'll swim!" So he did. Then he looked down, and there were the three Sendak children lying perfectly still underwater, not fighting for life!

I hate those e-books. They can not be the future... they may well be... I will be dead.

Newt Gingrich is an idiot of great renown... There's something so hopelessly gross and vile about him it's hard to take him seriously.

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

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.