318 Quotes by Maurice Sendak

"I feel like I don't have a lot of time left."

"William Blake really is important, my cornerstone. Nobody ever told me before he did that childhood was such a damned serious business."

"Girls are infinitely more complicated than boys and women more than men. And there's no doubt about that. We just don't like to think about it. Certainly the men don't like to think about it."

"Illustrations have as much to say as the text. The trick is to say the same thing, but in a different way. It's no good being an illustrator who is saying a lot that is on his or her mind, if it has nothing to do with the text. . . the artist must override the story, but he must also override his own ego for the sake of the story."

"He was the strangest little bird I'd ever seen. He had fluttered into the world of the studios and, could he not be swatted dead, I knew he would manage. I had total faith in him."

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

"What most people wanted was a reproduction of the book, because the book made money,"

"Kids never get pissed at their parents. Unheard of."

"My work is not great, but it's respectable. I have no false illusions."

"My work is not great, but it's respectable."