Maurice Sendak > Quotes

“A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful.”
― Maurice Sendak

“Let the wild rumpus start!”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”
― Maurice Sendak

“Oh, please don't go—we'll eat you up—we love you so!”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more.”
― Maurice Sendak

“I'll eat you up I love you so.”
― Maurice Sendak

“There must be more to life than having everything!”
― Maurice Sendak, Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life

“There should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“I have nothing now but praise for my life. I'm not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more...What I dread is the isolation. ... There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready.”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“You cannot write for children. They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them. ”
― Maurice Sendak

“And [he] sailed back over a year
and in and out of weeks
and through a day
and into the night of his very own room
where he found his supper waiting for him
and it was still hot”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go - we’ll eat you up - we love you so!”
And Max said, “No!”
The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws but Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye.”
― Maurice Sendak

“I think it is unnatural to think that there is such a thing as a blue-sky, white-clouded happy childhood for anybody. Childhood is a very, very tricky business of surviving it. Because if one thing goes wrong or anything goes wrong, and usually something goes wrong, then you are compromised as a human being. You're going to trip over that for a good part of your life.”
― Maurice Sendak

“. . .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.”
― Maurice Sendak

“I remember my own childhood vividly...I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them”
― Maurice Sendak

“F**k them is what I say. I hate those ebooks. They can not be the future. They may well be. I will be dead. I won't give a s**t.”
― Maurice Sendak

“I said anything I wanted because I don't believe in children I don't believe in childhood. I don't believe that there's a demarcation. 'Oh you mustn't tell them that. You mustn't tell them that.' You tell them anything you want. Just tell them if it's true. If it's true you tell them.”
― Maurice Sendak

“there is no such thing as fantasy unrelated to reality”
― Maurice Sendak

“Art has always been my salvation. And my gods are Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Mozart. I believe in them with all my heart. And when Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can’t explain — I don’t need to. I know that if there’s a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart. Or if I walk in the woods and I see an animal, the purpose of my life was to see that animal. I can recollect it, I can notice it. I’m here to take note of. And that is beyond my ego, beyond anything that belongs to me, an observer, an observer.”
― Maurice Sendak

“Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.”
― Maurice Sendak

“Then from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat, so he gave up being king of the wild things.”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“But the wild things cried, “Oh please don't go- We'll eat you up- we love you so!”
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“Grown-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 don’t like what we write for them, what we dish up for them, because it’s vapid, so they’ll go for the hard words, they’ll go for the hard concepts, they’ll go for the stuff where they can learn something. Not didactic things, but passionate things.”
― Maurice Sendak

“And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming wild things.”
― Maurice Sendak

“I have nothing now but praise for my life. I'm not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more...”
― Maurice Sendak

“Sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup with rice.”
― Maurice Sendak, Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months

“Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.”
― Maurice Sendak