“Sendak is in search of what he calls a "yummy death". William Blake set the standard, jumping up from his death bed at the last minute to start singing. "A happy death," says Sendak. "It can be done." He lifts his eyebrows to two peaks. "If you're William Blake and totally crazy.”

“I want to be alone and work until the day my heads hits the drawing table and I'm dead. Kaput. I feel very much like I want to be with my brother and sister again. They're nowhere. I know they're nowhere and they don't exist, but if nowhere means that's where they are, that's where I want to be.”

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

“Mothers and children are human beings, and they will sometimes do the wrong thing.”

“I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness.”

“I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.”

“My father could be very witty, even if the humor was always on the darker side of irony.”

“Childhood is a tricky business. Usually, something goes wrong.”

“There must be more to life than having everything!”

“There must be more to life than having everything.”

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