Literary Birthday – 22 May – Max Brooks

Happy Birthday, Max Brooks, born on 22 May 1972.

Max Brooks Quotes

1. My rule is that whatever I write has to start with its first fan, which is me, I have to love it, because if I don’t love it then it’s not worth doing.
2. Before I’m a zombie nerd, before I’m a science-fiction nerd, I am a history nerd.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 that they feel safe, and therefore bored. And therefore they want to be scared. I already have a baseline level of just anxiety about the world I live in. I don’t need to go seeking it out.
6. I think the notion of learning how to survive when the old world rules no longer apply – it pretty much sums up everything I write about. It’s really the crux of my work.
7. I write a lot about change, and I write about my characters having to adapt to external changes that they did not choose and do not necessarily want.

READ: Max Brooks’ 5 Writing Tips

Max Brooks is an American horror author and screenwriter. He is the son of comedy filmmaker Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. From 2001 to 2003, Brooks was a member of the writing team at Saturday Night Live. is the author of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, the Zombie Survival Guide, Minecraft: The Island, and Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre. His graphic novels include GI Joe: Hearts and Minds, The Extinction Parade, and The Harlem Hellfighters.

Source for image: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Max_Brooks_at_BookExpo_(15957).jpg
Source for quotes

by Amanda Patterson

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