Biography

His most famous book, "Where the Wild Things Are," was originally going to be titled "Where the Wild Horses Are." He gave that up when he discovered that he couldn't draw horses.

Said he set his goal to become a writer and an illustrator when he was four or five years old.

Sendak and companion Dr. Eugene Glynn lived together for 50 years before Glynn's May 2007 death from lung cancer.

Worked also as a designer for ballet and opera.

Several of the Wild Things were actually caricatures of relatives who used to visit his parents' home when he was a child.

There must be more to life than having everything.

I think Disney is terrible for young children.

All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew. [In a 2008 New York Times interview, talking about never telling his parents he was gay.].

[Interview by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report (2005), 1/25/2012] Newt Gingrich is an idiot of great renown. There is something so hopelessly gross and vile about him, that it's hard to take him seriously.

[from an interview in 2011] 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. 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.