I never set out to write books for children. I don't have a feeling that I'm gonna save children or my life is devoted.

[Drawing] and making things was all we ever did. My brother and I built the entire New York World's Fair of 1939 in miniature out of wax. The floor of our room was covered with little waxen buildings. Nobody else could come in.

I'm not jaded. I never have been jaded. I've always been surprised at my success. I've always enjoyed it.

Children surviving childhood is my obsessive theme and my life's concern.

Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. They have to be tough. Childhood is not easy. We sentimentalize children, but they know what's real and what's not. They understand metaphor and symbol. If children are different from us, they are more spontaneous. Grown-up lives have become overlaid with dross.

there is no such thing as fantasy unrelated to reality

And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!