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!

Kids lead a very private life.

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

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

I often went to bed without supper cause I hated my mother's cooking. So, to go to bed without supper was not a torture to me. If she was gonna hurt me, she'd make me eat.

Kids books Grownup books That's just marketing. Books are books.

In plain terms, a child is a complicated creature who can drive you crazy. There's a cruelty to childhood, there's an anger.