Maurice Sendak Documentary Reveals The Artist's Inspirations, Future Plans (VIDEO)

"I don't believe that I have ever written a children's book." That's what Maurice Sendak says of his long, celebrated career in what most of the world would consider to be children's books.

Best known for "Where the Wild Things Are," the tale of Max and his nighttime voyage into wild lands, Sendak, the 83-year-old writer and illustrator, reflects on his work in a new short documentary from the British art institution, the Tate. The video is a part of Tate Shots, "a series of short videos with a focus on modern and contemporary art."

"How do you set out to write a children's book? It's a lie," he continues. Of the people who ask him where "Wild Things 2" is, he answers, "Go to hell ... go to hell. I'm not a whore, I don't do those things."

On his artistic philosophy, Sendak looks to "Moby Dick" author Herman Melville.

"Herman Melville said that artists have to take a dive and either you hit your head on a rock and you split your skull and you die or that blow to the head is so inspiring that you come back up and do the best work that you ever did," he says. "But you have to take the dive and you do not know what the result will be."

Melville isn't the only artist Sendak looks to for inspiration. He's currently writing a book on the life of William Blake, of whom he says, "I don't know what the hell he's talking about, but I love him. His profound belief in something ... sounds kind of idiotic ... but I believe him, I believe in his passion."

Sendak goes on to discuss his favorite of his own books, his upbringing in Brooklyn, and the "appropriateness" of his work. Sendak's most recent book, "Bumble Ardy," tells the story of an exuberant young pig whose plans to throw himself a party soon get out of hand. Like many of his books, critics wondered if the material was too scary, or too adult, for younger readers.

But though Sendak says he doesn't write books for children, he waxes rhapsodic about what children are specially equipped to perceive: "The magic of childhood and the strangeness of childhood, the uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don't see."

Watch the short documentary below:

Comments

[avery t]

08:42 PM on 01/02/2012

You know, I love Sendalk. I grew up reading him. However, his books are nor grown-up books in the way that The Brothers Karamazov, Absalom Absalom, The Picture of Dorian Grey, and Remembrance of Things Past are adult books. It's a dumb thing to say, and only a barely literate person would say it. The Counterlife by Roth and London Fields by Amis are adult books.

Sendalk's comment is a fauvist comment. I don't like Fauvism. Children are children and adults are adults. In my experience, adults who want to be children are adults who are freaked out by s-x.

[avery t]

08:45 PM on 01/02/2012

Sendak. I have no idea why I put an L in his name.

Blake is a genius, if you spend two years figuring him out. Otherwise, reading him is like tossing some tarot cards on your floor and making up a story with them (without knowing what the card traditionally mean).

Everybody wants to talk, but nobody wants to think.

[lorraine s]

04:13 PM on 01/02/2012

I adore Sendak, from his night kitchen, to Really Rosie, Pierre, the Wild things, the cute dogs (stand-ins for his own) and all the other illustrations for books he did not write, his art informed my childhood. Even though I am way past being a kid, I still had to get Bumble Ardy and dive into Sendak's world. In an age of ugly kid's books, and electronic distractions, I hope children will still discover and enjoy Sendak's slightly subversive, humorous,magical world.

[Michael Lee Smyth]

12:24 AM on 01/02/2012

If I read it as an adult, even if to my grandkids, and enjoy it as much as they do....is it really a children's book?

[macgyver51]

11:38 PM on 01/01/2012

He's a bit of a diva, an overrated one at that. I'll take Shel Silverstein or Dr. Seuss over Sendak any day.

[debanne123]

12:23 AM on 12/31/2011

awesome illustrator

[Phyllis Copeland]

07:24 AM on 12/30/2011

He's right - kids have deeper spiritual lives than most adults suspect and most kids respond well to stories that respect them as a reader/listener. There are some stories that I feel kids really need to be exposed to, stories that address major themes that we grapple with as humans, such as death and dying, grief, loss, forgiveness vs revenge, courage in the face of fear, doing the right thing even when it's easier not to, oh, the list could go on and on. I think that is at the heart of the success of the Harry Potter books - Rowling skillfully wove some of these great major themes into it, subjects that don't often show up in children's books and millions of children deeply appreciated it. So did many parents, speaking as one myself. :-) I feel books like these nourish our kids souls in a very special way and that is why they are so well loved over so many generations.

[rewith85man]

08:37 PM on 12/29/2011

Good writer. That's all I can say.

[Internet Privacy Hah]

08:14 PM on 12/29/2011

He wrote the Little Bear books, right? Little Bear was the first book I realized I could read. What a magical experience.

[Phyllis Copeland]

07:12 AM on 12/30/2011

Elsa Homelund Minarik worte the books, but Maurice Sendak created the charming illustrations that really brought those charming characters to life. He was also the force behind turning the series into a cartoon that was aired on Nickelodeon in the 1990s. My kids dearly loved both the books and the cartoons, so I'm intimately familiar with them! :-) His work is simply incredible!

[NormdePlume]

05:53 PM on 12/29/2011

NPR replayed an interview that Terry Gross did with Mr. Sendak. Very interesting guy.

[MaybeMilo]

05:22 PM on 12/29/2011

Pure genius as an illustrator.

[stjoshy]

02:21 PM on 12/29/2011

i think every american kid who ever read or was read to knows where the wild things are. its definitely a classic with life lessons, like the giving tree.

[Liona Rowan]

03:16 PM on 12/29/2011

yes the giving tree, a treatise on how to be a selfish, narcissistic, taker and a co-dependent, masochistic idiot. Beautiful.

[Bor Zoi]

08:15 PM on 12/29/2011

Thank you.

[macgyver51]

11:37 PM on 01/01/2012

What a sad life you must lead.

[JokersNuts]

02:19 PM on 12/29/2011

My dad read me Where the Wild Things Are every night before I fell asleep, complete with acting out the voices and waving the book as if it were a boat adrift at sea during the sailing part. I love that book to pieces.

[hopper250]

12:37 PM on 12/29/2011

Interesting. I can see where he's coming from though.