A few things you may not have known about Maurice Sendak before the beloved author's death Tuesday at 83: He was openly gay, at least in his latter years. He wasn't wild about children, but preferred them to adults. And he really, really didn't like Newt Gingrich.
The last fact came to light in a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, when Sendak observed, "There is something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children."
Also read: Maurice Sendak, 'Where the Wild Things Are' Creator, Dies at 83
"What do you mean, the complexity of children?" said Colbert, embracing his clueless pundit personae. "Because children have it easy. They get driven every place, we feed them, we dress them. Newt Gingrich said it: Children don't have a work ethic."
Sendak, sitting in an easy chair with a cane, refused to play the part of gentle, doddering children's author.
"But Newt Gingrich is an idiot," he said, to the surprised laughter of Colbert's audience. "There is something so hopelessly gross and vile about him."
We didn't see that one coming.
Watch the interview:
The Colbert Report
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