When Stephen Colbert sees an opportunity to gain power, influence or large chunk of change he strikes like an agitated king cobra. We have already seen his impact on the 2012 presidential election, where he has hilariously revealed the bizarre truth behind Super PACs and polled higher than John Huntsman in South Carolina, despite not being on the ballot.

The self-proclaimed “conqueror of all media” is quite the multitasker; when not hosting his critically-acclaimed show he’s sponsoring the Olympic speed skating team, writing New York Times best-sellers and winning Grammy awards. It seems the only thing he can’t do is beat out his rival Jon Stewart for the Emmy or write a children’s book. However, this week he aimed at conquering the children’s book medium as well, and for that Colbert needed to seek out the help of an expert — Maurice Sendak.

The world-renowned author and illustrator of “Where the Wild Things Are,” Sendak sat down with Colbert for a two-day interview to discuss the shitty state of children’s books today, Newt Gingrich’s mental capacity and huff some Sharpie markers. The interview took place at Sendak’s house and the 83-year-old Brooklyn native held nothing back when answering Colbert’s typically unusual line of questioning. Sendak openly complained about “Where the Wild Things Are” getting too much attention, and flipped a shit over the notion of e-books taking over.

Colbert also debuts his first children’s book, which, not surprisingly, is witty and wonderful. But make no mistake, Sendak is the undisputed star of the interview (one of the best I’ve ever seen from Colbert) — by the end you kind of wish he was your old gay grandpa.

Part 1

Part 2

[Colbert Nation]