Words matter. These are the best Max Brooks Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
When I started writing, there was nothing about zombies. It was all teen movies, which to me are scarier than zombies, but that’s another story.
Zombies are apocalyptic. I think that’s why people love them because we’re living in, not apocalyptic times, but I think we’re living in fear of the apocalyptic times.
I actually wrote my first zombie book way before I got the job on ‘Saturday Night Live.’
I don’t mind my work being a record of the time it was written in.
I wrote ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’ because I wanted to read it, and nobody else was writing it. All I’ve been doing with everything I’ve written is answering questions that I had.
Zombies let us explore notions of the apocalypse – no water, food, medical care, the government imploding – while letting us sleep at night.
Zombies are so popular. There’s a lot of chaff out there. For every one person who is legitimately passionate about zombies, there are a hundred people who are thinking, ‘Hey, I can make a buck off of this.’ The problem is that some of their stuff is so lame.
I’m not a horror fan. I’m an anti-horror fan. I think horror fans feel deep down in the pit of their souls, they feel safe, and therefore bored. And therefore they want to be scared.
I wanted to serve. It was Desert Storm. I thought, ‘I was a rich kid, and America’s been good to me.’
I think Americans are at our best when we recover from a crisis. We’ve suffered some blows that other countries would have never recovered from.
Zombies are apocalyptic in nature. They belong to a class of monster that doesn’t just hunt humans, but seeks to obliterate that entire human race.
When I was 16, the first book I ever actually purchased with my own money, in fact, and had read on my own time was ‘Hunt for Red October’ by Tom Clancy.
You assume things, like whatever country has more firepower wins the wars, and that’s actually not true at all.
I think the general anxiety of the 1960s – ’70s spawned our interest in the living dead. When people worry about the end of their world, they need a safe vessel for all their fears. Zombies provide that vessel because they’re ‘safe.’
Zombie books were going to be my passion projects, but certainly not pay the bills. I thought I was going to have to get a real job on a sitcom or something, and have my zombie books to remind myself I was still a writer at heart. I never thought I could actually pay my bills and write what I wanted.
The bottom line is I’m a slow zombie guy – I’m always a slow zombie guy but I also know I’m in the minority.
If I knew anything about what people wanted and was popular, I’d still be writing for ‘Saturday Night Live’. I can only write what I want, and hopefully people will like it.
I think the fascination with zombies is that they don’t obey the rules of monsters. The first rule of monsters is that you have to go find them. You have to make a conscious choice to go to the swamp or the desert or the abandoned summer camp.
When I read Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’, I think it’s a wonderful record of the Reagan era. I think it’s amazing. This is the time I lived in.
Since 2001, people have been scared. There’s been some really scary stuff that’s been happening – 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, anthrax letters, D.C. sniper, global warming, global financial meltdown, bird flu, swine flu, SARS. I think people really feel like the system’s breaking down.
