Phyl > Phyl's Quotes

“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

“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

“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

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

“There should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen”
― 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

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

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

“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

“The qualities that make for excellence in children's literature can be summed up in a single word: imagination. And imagination as it relates to the child is, to my mind, synonymous with fantasy. Contrary to most of the propaganda in books for the young, childhood is only partly a time of innocence. It is, in my opinion, a time of seriousness, bewilderment, and a good deal of suffering. It's also possibly the best of all times. Imagination for the child is the miraculous, freewheeling device he uses to course his way through the problems of every day....It's through fantasy that children achieve catharsis.”
― Maurice Sendak

“It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything.”
― Maurice Sendak, The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to Present

“Each month is gay,
Each season nice,
When eating
Chicken soup
With rice”
― Maurice Sendak, Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months