The late Maurice Sendak, famous for authoring Where The Wild Things Are, which has been read by generations of schoolchildren, said he he had considered assassinating former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney. In an interview with Gary Groth of The Comics Journal before his death, Sendak said he had thought about tying a bomb to his shirt, insisting on going to the White House, and asking for a group hug with Bush and First Lady Laura Bush and blowing everyone up.
“I’d be a hero,” Sendak said. “It would have been a brave and wonderful thing.”
Here is the relevant portion of the interview:
SENDAK: Bush was president, I thought, “Be brave. Tie a bomb to your shirt. Insist on going to the White House. And I wanna have a big hug with the vice president, definitely. And his wife, and the president, and his wife, and anybody else that can fit into the love hug.”
GROTH: A group hug.
SENDAK: And then we’ll blow ourselves up, and I’d be a hero. [Groth laughs.] To hell with the kiddie books. He killed Bush. He killed the vice president. Oh my God.
GROTH: I would have been willing to forgo this interview. [Sendak laughs.]
SENDAK: You would have forgotten about it. It would have been a very brave and wonderful thing. But I didn’t do it; I didn’t do it.
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