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I Never Thought Of Bumble-ardy In That Way. But I Still Have That Same Deep Feeling For Children Who Are In Dire Trouble. I See Bumble-ardy As A Lonely, Unhappy Kid Who Is Doing The Very Best He Can To Be In The World, To Have A Party.

-Maurice Sendak

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I Never Thought Of

Maurice Sendak

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I Never Thought Of Bumble-ardy In That Way. But I Still Have That Same Deep Feeling For Children Who Are In Dire Trouble. I See Bumble-ardy As A Lonely, Unhappy Kid Who Is Doing The Very Best He Can To Be In The World, To Have A Party.

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Leaving A Legacy

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Painful Experiences

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One Of The Few Graces Of Getting Old - And God Knows There Are Few Graces - Is That If You've Worked Hard And Kept Your Nose To The Grindstone, Something Happens: The Body Gets Old But The Creative Mechanism Is Refreshed, Smoothed And Oiled And Honed. That Is The Grace. That Is What's Happening To Me.

I Have This Idiot Name Tag Which Says 'controversial.'

An Illustrator In My Own Mind - And This Is Not A Truth Of Any Kind - Is Someone Who So Falls In Love With Writing That He Wishes He Had Written It, And The Closest He Can Get To Is Illustrating It. And The Next Thing You Learn, You Have To Find Something Unique In This Book, Which Perhaps Even The Author Was Not Entirely Aware Of. And That's What You Hold On To, And That's What You Add To The Pictures: A Whole Other Story That You Believe In, That You Think Is There.

Falling In Love

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It Is Such An Abundance Of Idiocy That You Lose Courage. That You Lose Hope. I Don't Want To Lose Hope. I Get Through Every Day. I'm Pretty Good. I Work. I Sleep. I Sing. I Walk.

It Was Inconceivable To Me As A Child That I Would Be An Adult. I Mean, One Assumed That It Would Happen, But Obviously It Didn't Happen, Or If It Did, It Happened When Your Back Was Turned, And Then Suddenly You Were There. So I Couldn't Have Thought About It Much.

Truthfullness To Life-both Fantasy Life And Factual Life-is The Basis Of All Great Art.

I'd Like To Believe An Accumulation Of Experience Has Made Me A Sort Of A Grown-up Person, So I Can Have Judgment And Taste And Whatever.

I Wanted My Wild Things To Be Frightening.

I Was Sickly As A Child And Gravitated To Books And Drawing. During My Early Teen Years, I Spent Hundreds Of Hours At My Window, Sketching Neighborhood Children At Play. I Sketched And Listened, And Those Notebooks Became The Fertile Field Of My Work Later On. There Is Not A Book I Have Written Or A Picture I Have Drawn That Does Not, In Some Way, Owe Them Its Existence.

I Stress Character, Character, Character.

In Another Project I Worked On Just A Few Years Ago, A Staging Of Peter And The Wolf, Which I Translated Into Yiddish And Sang On A Stage In New York City. Thank God Very Few People Knew I Was Doing It! But The Kids In The Audience Loved It - Even Though It Was All In Yiddish.

That Always Seemed To Be The Most Critical Test That A Child Was Confronted With - Loss Of Parents, Loss Of Direction, Loss Of Love. Can You Live Without A Mother And A Father?

I Never Thought Of Bumble-ardy In That Way. But I Still Have That Same Deep Feeling For Children Who Are In Dire Trouble. I See Bumble-ardy As A Lonely, Unhappy Kid Who Is Doing The Very Best He Can To Be In The World, To Have A Party.

And Now," Cried Max, "let The Wild Rumpus Start!

We're Animals. We're Violent. We're Criminal. And If I've Done Anything, I've Had Kids Express Themselves As They Are.

There Is No Such Thing As Fantasy Unrelated To Reality

Emeralds,' Said The Rabbit. 'emeralds Make A Lovely Gift.

'hansel And Gretel' Is One Of The Scariest Stories Ever Written! Psychotic Mother; Stupid, Inane Father.

If Children Are Different From Us, They Are More Spontaneous. Grown-up Lives Have Become Overlaid With Dross.

I 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.

There Should Be A Place Where Only The Things You Want To Happen, Happen.

Venturing Back Further, Learning Is So Slow. Accomplishment Is So Slow. Experiencing And Evaluating Your Experience Is So Slow.

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I Think That If In Your Heart, You Are Seeking Out A Real Puzzle, And You're Not Looking To Frighten Anybody, You're Not Looking To Upset Anybody, And You're Looking To Discuss A Subject That You Yourself Went Through When You Were Nine - You Just Don't Remember The Difficulties Of One's Own Childhood.

Inside All Of Us Is... Hope. Inside All Of Us Is... Fear. Inside All Of Us Is... Adventure. Inside All Of Us Is A Wild Thing.

You Cannot Write For Children They're Much Too Complicated. You Can Only Write Books That Are Of Interest To Them.

There Are Certain Pieces Of Music That Are Always Attached To Certain Books.

I Wanted To Be Acknowledged As An Artist, Not Just Some Kiddie-book Artist.

I Really Don't Like The City Anymore. You Get Pushed And Harassed And People Grope You. It's Too Tumultuous. It's Too Crazy.

And Max, The King Of All Wild Things, Was Lonely And Wanted To Be Where Someone Loved Him Best Of All.

I Remember How Much - When I Was A Small Boy I Was Taken To See A Version Of 'peter Pan.' I Detested It. I Mean, The Sentimental Idea That Anybody Would Want To Remain A Boy.

I Had Been Reading A Fabulous Book [the Man Verdi, By Frank Walker] About [giuseppe] Verdi, Whom I Adore.

It's No Fun Being Lonely.

I Hate Those E-books. They Can Not Be The Future... They May Well Be... I Will Be Dead.

I Want To Be Free Again. I Want To Be Free Like When I Was A Kid, Working With My Brother And Making Toy Airplanes And A Whole Model Of The World's Fair In 1939 Out Of Wax.

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.

My Big Concern Is Me And What Do I Do Now Until The Time Of My Death. That Is Valid. That Is Useful. That Is Beautiful. That Is Creative.

[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.

Why Is My Needle Stuck In Childhood? I Don't Know Why. I Guess It's Because That's Where My Heart Is.

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Joanna Noelle Levesque

Lara Flynn Boyle

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