Book Quote by Maurice Sendak
![“It was a very difficult time. I was working on [umble-Ardy] when my partner and friend was dying of cancer. We set up a room in the house to be like a hospital room. Eugene died, and then I had bypass surgery. I was doing the book to stay sane while all this was going on.” quote by Maurice Sendak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/546/maurice-sendak-1273_book_it-was-a-very-difficult-time-i-was-worki_2340683.jpg)
“It was a very difficult time. I was working on [umble-Ardy] when my partner and friend was dying of cancer. We set up a room in the house to be like a hospital room. Eugene died, and then I had bypass surgery. I was doing the book to stay sane while all this was going on.”
About This Quote
Source Memoir: Personal reflections during caregiving, 1990s
The narrator describes coping with personal loss, illness, and surgery by writing a book to maintain mental stability.
In simple terms: Writing helped the author endure hardship.
Key Takeaway
Use creative work to process trauma.
Themes
grief
illness
creativity
resilience
Mood
somber
reflective
Type
personal
therapeutic
When to use this quote
- hospital caregiving
- personal health crisis
- authoring a book
Key Concepts
catharsis
narrative therapy
mindfulness
Questions to Reflect On
- How can creative expression aid healing?
- What limits does writing have in coping with loss?
A Different Perspective
Writing may not fully resolve emotional pain and can be draining.
![“I was certainly seriously emotionally affected [ when Louise Hillary and Belinda Hillary died], but we were building the hospital at the time and I decided that the only thing to do was to carry on and complete the hospital - and it was a jolly good hospital too, I might say. So I really did it by…” quote by Edmund Hillary](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/311/edmund-hillary-3760_affected_i-was-certainly-seriously-emotionally-af_762723.jpg)
![“We were 15 minutes into it and nothing was happening; I thought, well, that's not going to work. Then all of a sudden everything clicked. I don't know how long it took us, but I would just show up at Alison's [McGhee] office. She would type and we'd just kick it back and forth. Writing is so scary…” quote by Kate DiCamillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/04f/kate-dicamillo-599_back-and-forth_we-were-15-minutes-into-it-and-nothing-w_3060277.jpg)
