A Link to Put You (Well Me, Anyway) in a Good Mood

Maurice Sendak at 83, kvetching ... (Guardian)

"I refuse to lie to children," says Sendak. "I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence."

..And he is returning to those authors he wants to reread before he dies: Samuel Palmer, Proust, George Eliot.  He loves Middlemarch, although "Daniel Deronda, oy gevalt! She put aside her hard hat and was determined to be sweet and understanding. That won't get you anywhere, honey."

And with that he's off again. Of Salman Rushdie, who once gave him a terrible review in the New York Times, he says: "That flaccid fuckhead. He was detestable. I called up the Ayatollah, nobody knows that." Roald Dahl: "The cruelty in his books is off-putting. Scary guy. I know he's very popular but what's nice about this guy? He's dead, that's what's nice about him." Stephen King: "Bullshit." Gwyneth Paltrow: "I can't stand her."