Quotessence
Home / Authors / Max Brooks
Max Brooks

Max Brooks Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllZombieWorld War ZThinkingIfsPeopleKnowsWarTryingWantedBook

Famous Max Brooks Quotes

“The living dead had taken more from us than land and loved ones. They'd robbed us of our confidence as the planet's dominant life form. We were a shaken, broken species, driven to the edge of extinction and grateful only for tomorrow with perhaps a little less suffering than today. Was this the legacy we would leave our children, a level of anxiety and self-doubt not seen since our simian ancestors cowered in the tallest trees? What kind of world would they rebuild? Would they rebuild at all? Could they continue to progress, knowing that they would be powerless to reclaim their future? And what if that future saw another rise of the living dead? Would our descendants rise to meet them in battle, or simply crumple in meek surrender and accept what they believe to be their inevitable extinction? For this alone, we had to reclaim our planet. We had to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and leave that proof as this war's greatest monument. The long, hard road back to humanity, or the regressive ennui of Earth's once-proud primates. That was the choice, and it had to be made now.”

Hope
Book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Create image

“During the Qin Dynasty, all books not relating to practical concerns such as agriculture or construction were ordered burned by the emperor to guard against "dangerous thought." Whether accounts of zombie attacks perished in the flames will never be known. This obscure section of a medical manuscript, preserved in the wall of an executed Chinese scholar, might be proof of such attacks.”

BookMightKnownDangerousWallConcernAccountsProofMedicalPracticalsChineseFlamesConstructionScholarBurnedAgricultureObscureSectionsZombieEmperorManuscriptsDynasty
Book:The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
Create image

“If your Soviet neighbor is trying to set fire to your house, you can't be worrying about the Arab down the block. If suddenly it's the Arab in your backyard , you can't be worrying about the People's Republic of China and if one day the ChiComs show up at your front door with an eviction notice in one hand and a Molotov cocktail in the other, then the last thing you're going do is look over his shoulder for a walking corpse.”

PeopleIfsTryingLooksShowsHandsLastsHouseWorryFireDoorsFrontsWalkingOne DayChinaNeighborShouldersBlockRepublicSovietCorpsesCocktailsBackyardsFront DoorsEvictionWorld War ZMolotovMolotov Cocktail
Book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Create image

“Gu was a worrier, a neurotic curmudgeon. If he had a headache, it was a brain tumor; if it looked like rain, this year's harvest was ruined. This was his way of controlling the situation, his lifelong strategy for always coming out ahead. Now, when reality looked more dire than any of his fatalisitic predictions, he had no choice but to turn tail and charge in the opposite direction.”

IfsWayYearsRealityTurnsChoicesBrainSituationRainOppositesStrategyComing OutTailsHarvestPredictionsRuinedLifelongNeuroticHeadacheTumorsCurmudgeonBrain Tumor
Book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Create image

“Looking back, I still can't believe how unprofessional the news media was. So much spin, so few hard facts. All those digestible sound bites from an army of 'experts' all contradicting one another, all trying to seem more 'shocking' and 'in-depth' than the last one. It was all so confusing, nobody seemed to know what to do.”

KnowsTryingBelieveStillsHardFactsSeemsLastsSoundMediaNewsArmyDepthExpertsBitesLooking BackShockingConfusingNews MediaContradictingSound Bites
Book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Create image

“Zombies will try to scale any surface no matter how unfeasable or even impossible. In all but the easiest situations, these attempts have met with failure. Even in the case of ladders, when simple hand-over-hand coordination is required, only one in four zombies will succeed.”

TryingMatterHandsSimpleSituationCasesFourImpossibleMetsSucceedSurfaceScalesZombieLaddersCoordination
Book:The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
Create image

“1. Organize before they rise! 2. They feel no fear, why should you? 3. Use your head: cut off theirs. 4. Blades don't need reloading. 5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair. 6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it. 7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike. 8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert! 9. No place is safe, only safer. 10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.”

NeedsFeelsShouldMayUseMovingGoneCuttingCarHairQuietSafeClothesLowsIdealsThreatProtectionGet UpOrganizeBikeNo FearZombieBladesKeep MovingStaircasesShort HairTight ClothesReloading
Author:Max Brooks
Create image

“They were viewed very much like castles, I suppose: as crumbling, obsolete relics, with no real modern function other than as tourist attractions. But when the skies darkened and the nation called, both reawoke to the meaning of their existence. One shielded our bodies, the other, our souls.”

RealSoulBodyNationsExistenceSkyModernFunctionAttractionCastlesTouristsObsoleteRelicsCrumbling
Book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Create image

“We relinquished our freedom that day, and we were more than happy to see it go. From that moment on we lived in true freedom, the freedom to point to someone else and say “They told me to do it! It’s their fault, not mine.” The freedom, God help us, to say “I was only following orders.”-World War Z”

WorldWarMomentsHelpingOrderMinesFaultsFollowingWar Of The WorldsThat MomentGod HelpTrue FreedomGod Help UsWorld War ZFollowing Orders
Book:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Create image

“You can't blame anyone else... You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices. He knew this. That's why he deserted us like we deserted those civilians. He saw the road ahead, a steep, treacherous mountain road. We'd all have to hike that road, each of us dragging the boulder of what we'd done behind us. He couldn't do it. He couldn't shoulder the weight." - Philip Adler”

DoneChoicesBehindsSawsMountainConsequenceWeightBlameShouldersCiviliansSteepTreacherousDesertedPhilipAgonizingBouldersAdlerMake Your Own Choices
Author:Max Brooks
Create image