“When you hide another story in a story, that’s the story I am telling the children.”

—  Maurice Sendak

Quoted in an interview, "Sendak on Sendak," Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia (2007/2008)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When you hide another story in a story, that’s the story I am telling the children." by Maurice Sendak?
Maurice Sendak photo
Maurice Sendak 53
American illustrator and writer of children's books 1928–2012

Related quotes

Jeanette Winterson photo

“Trust me, I'm telling you stories…. I can change the story. I am the story.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Written on the Body

Clive Staples Lewis photo

“I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. The good ones last. A waltz which you can like only when you are waltzing is a bad waltz.”

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist

"On Three Ways of Writing for Children" (1952) — in Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (1967), p. 24

Ahmad Shamlou photo

“I am not a story to tell me”

Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) Iranian Persian poet, writer, and journalist

sourced, poetry

Stephen King photo

“When you write you tell yourself a story. When you rewrite you take out everything that is NOT the story.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Variant: When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo

“Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.”

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie (1977) Nigerian writer
Megan Whalen Turner photo

“Tell me a story then… keep me occupied."
"A story?… What makes you think I can tell a story?"
"Insight," said the king, "Go on.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Robert Penn Warren photo

“Tell me a story.
In this century, and moment, of mania,
Tell me a story.
Make it a story of great distances, and starlight.
The name of the story will be Time,
But you must not pronounce its name.
Tell me a story of deep delight.”

Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) American poet, novelist, and literary critic

"Tell me A Story"

Philip Pullman photo

“Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 32 : Morning
Context: One of the ghosts — an old woman — beckoned, urging her to come close.
Then she spoke, and Mary heard her say:
"Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories."
That was all, and then she was gone. It was one of those moments when we suddenly recall a dream that we’ve unaccountably forgotten, and back in a flood comes all the emotion we felt in our sleep. It was the dream she’d tried to describe to Atal, the night picture; but as Mary tried to find it again, it dissolved and drifted apart, just as these presences did in the open air. The dream was gone.
All that was left was the sweetness of that feeling, and the injunction to tell them stories.

“At this point in my life, I don’t worry about telling a literary story or the right story; I tell the story I want to tell, the story that makes me feel alive, the questions I want to answer.”

Amulya Malladi (1974) Indian writer

On not caring about what other people think about her writing in “An Interview with Amulya Malladi” http://jaggerylit.com/an-interview-with-amulya-malladi/ in Jaggery

Related topics