Bumble-Ardy looks like a happy book. That's the funniest thing about it. But this was survival. I was working very hard to survive.
Maurice SendakI thought that if I were going into old age I would want to do what [Giuseppe] Verdi did, which is to write extraordinary things, and to really find myself.
Maurice SendakI write books that seem more suitable for children, and that's OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think.
Maurice SendakI do not remember any proper children's books in my childhood. I was not exposed to them.
Maurice SendakGrown-ups desperately need to feel safe, and then they project onto the kids. But what none of us seem to realize is how smart kids are. They donโt like what we write for them, what we dish up for them, because itโs vapid, so theyโll go for the hard words, theyโll go for the hard concepts, theyโll go for the stuff where they can learn something. Not didactic things, but passionate things.
Maurice Sendak