I'm gay. I just didn't think it was anybody's business.

Sendak is in search of what he calls a "yummy death". William Blake set the standard, jumping up from his death bed at the last minute to start singing. "A happy death," says Sendak. "It can be done." He lifts his eyebrows to two peaks. "If you're William Blake and totally crazy.

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

From their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.

I grew up in a house that was in a constant state of mourning.

Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think.

Make it dangerous or it's not worth doing.