Bill Moyers

in this 2004 interview with Bill Moyers. The host tells Sendak that Joseph Campbell regarded the “roared their terrible roars” scene in Where the Wild Things Are as one of the greatest moments in literature. “Because it’s only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world,” Moyers expressed. Sendak replied:
“Oh, yes. We’re animals. We’re violent. We’re criminal. We’re not so far away from the gorillas and the apes, those beautiful creatures. So, of course. And then, we’re supposed to be civilized. We’re supposed to go to work every day. We’re supposed to be nice to our friends and send Christmas cards to our parents. We’re supposed to do all these things which trouble us deeply, because it’s so against what we naturally would want to do. And if I’ve done anything, I’ve had kids express themselves as they are, impolitely, lovingly… they don’t mean any harm. They just don’t know what the right way is.”
When I read that I knew I was reading of someone wise and honest. In a world like that is it any wonder I was a frightened little kid, a frightened little kid that realized so early in life the innate truism of human nature, fight or flight.
At the weekends I could take flight to the lake in my punt, observing nature around me. The eels and the fish, swans nest in the reeds and rookeries of ibis. Kingdoms of the wild where I could find myself. I would walk along the hedgerows of St Albans stud farm, stalk magpies sitting out of the wind and catch them with my bare hands for the pure joy of letting them go.
Come Monday morning I went to school. There was no bus service yet to St Albans so a group of parents paid for a taxi to take those going to St Margarets primary school. The playground was like Bill Moyers described, those ‘wild things’ were not the beautiful creatures like gorillas and apes. Those wild things were violent, they were animals, they were criminals and some I knew became criminals before they were 20yr.
I could not take flight, I was stuck with these animals I had to deal with.
Later at St Mary’s school I used my intellect and social skills to deal with them, to find my space in this field of animals. But for now I was at Primary school and had not yet developed my intellect and I had to stand and fight and make my space. I wrote a long time ago a story call ‘Monica’, she was an animal. She was older and much bigger than I and in that story I told how she tripped me and sent me sprawling in the crowded corridor and laugh at me. I got up and gave her a poke in the nose, which she didn’t like and thought was unfair so she went to Sister Mary Maculater.
Sister Mary was an imposing creature in her habit and not so angelic face and the next day I copped it. Dragged before Monica’s class I was ordered to apologize to Monica.
Of course I did not and was given the strap on both hands, Sister Mary’s face glowing red with both anger and exercion.
Primary school wasn’t all bad, there was the MacDonald sisters, Patty and Pammy and Jimmy and I took a shine to them. We waited outside the school gate for them to come out and each quite impolitely and crudely grabbed and kissed the object of our desire.
Patty and Pammy ran off, no doubt traumatized by the experience, Jimmy and I were quite proud of our foray into romance although it did lack experience and delicacy.
I was profoundly embarrassed though when my parents found out and teased me.
So lunch time was about making space, albeit fighting. It ended up that the only one I couldn’t beat was Jimmy and he could not beat me, so we joined forces and peace reigned over the playground. So Jimmy and I became good friends for many years.
Yes Bill Moyers talks in the link of the things that influenced his life, his aunts and uncles became the benevolent monsters in his book for as he said they would pick him up and say, “I could eat you! and you were so close you could see the hair growing out of their nose and ears. You knew they wouldn’t eat you though.”
 
http://flavorwire.com/396862/10-fascinating-interviews-with-maurice-sendak
 
Maurice Sendak
Illustrator
Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American illustrator and writer of children’s books. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. <a onmousedown="return rwt(this,'','','','21','AFQjCNGpKmYcQjz-pyFpzUywsMLRuU8aTA','U3SUvWjNDFJVoRFqQvWMRg','0CLgBEJoTKAAwFA','','',event)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak”>Wikipedia

BornJune 10, 1928, :Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
DiedMay 8, 2012, :Danbury, Connecticut, United States
Education:Art Students League of New York
AwardsCaldecott Medal, Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, , Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, National Book Award for Children’s Books, Picture BooksMore:
Siblings, Natalie Sendak:Jack Sendak

Books and plays
Where the Wild Things Are
1963
<span data-vq="/search?biw=1024&bih=571&q=maurice+sendak+%22In+the+Night+Kitchen%22&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAAEsANP_AHvTx-gAAAAPCAMiCS9tLzAxcHc5dkABpZilW8a5zKA2GZ2iGh_DirNk_Lfzsl6bLAAAAA”>In the Night Kitchen
1970
Outside Over There
1981
My Brother’s Book
2013
Chicken Soup with Rice