“You people who have survived childhood don't remeber any longer what it was like. You think children are whole, uncomplicated creatures, and if you split them in two with a handy axe there would be all one substance inside, hard candy. But it isn't hard candy so much as a hopeless seething lava of all kinds of things, a turmoil, a mess. And once the child starts thinking about this mess he begins to disintegrate as a child and turns into something else--an adult, an animal.”
![“I think there is something barbaric in children, and it's missing in lots of books for them because we don't like to think of it. We want them to be happy [but] childhood is a very tough time.” quote by Maurice Sendak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/453/maurice-sendak-1273_barbaric_i-think-there-is-something-barbaric-in-c_1585478.jpg)
![“He [an earnest young reporter] seemed to share the view of many intelligent, well-educated, well-meaning people that, while adult literature may aim to be art, the object of children's books is to whip the little rascals into shape.” quote by Katherine Paterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2cf/katherine-paterson-2365_adults_he-an-earnest-young-reporter-seemed-to-s_6101.jpg)
