Quotes from Max Brooks

The book of war, the one we've been writing since one ape slapped another, was completely useless in this situation. We had to write a new one from scratch.

He] believed both love and hate to be irrelevant. To him, they were impediments of the human condition, and, in his words again, imagine what could be accomplished if the human race would only shed its humanity.

The truth was, neither the Central Intelligence Agency nor any of the other official and unofficial U.S. intelligence organizations have ever been some kind of all-seeing, all-knowing, global illuminati. For starters, we never hand that kind of funding.

It's a lot easier to blow up trains than to make them run on time.

The whole country rests on a system that sacrifices resilience for comfort.

ALANG, INDIA [I stand on the shore with Ajay Shah, looking out at the rusting wrecks of once-proud ships. Since the government does not possess the funds to remove them and because both time and the elements have made their steel next to useless, they remain silent memorials to the carnage this beach once witnessed.]

But no matter what happens to the surviving humans, there will always be the walking dead.

Unlike the escapee, your team of hunters will be out during the brightest, hottest, most excruciating part of the day. Make sure each hunter is well supplied with water and antisunstroke accessories.

and that bastard Breckinridge Scott, yes, the Phalanx king, still hiding like a rat in his Antarctic Fortress of Scumditude. --Arthur Sinclair

Because Americans worship technology. It's an inherent trait in the national zeitgeist.

Injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you. That's why most weapons of war are designed to injure instead of kill. Wounded are more of a drain than the dead.

What about the FDA? Please, are you serious? Back then the FDA was one of the most underfunded, mismanaged organizations in the country. I think they were still high-fiving over getting Red No. 218 out of M&Ms.

I struggled so hard for a goal, without realizing that the goal is the struggle. It's what makes me stronger, smarter, and better. Growth doesn't come from a comfort zone, but from leaving it.

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.

Denial is an irrational dismissal of danger. Phobia is an irrational fear of one.

Great risks come with great rewards.

Freedom isn't just something you have for the sake of having, you have to want something else first and then want the freedom to fight for it.

A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on. —CORDELL HULL, secretary of state to President Franklin Delano R

You ever hear about that experiment an American journalist did in Moscow in the 1970s? He just lined up at some building, nothing special about it, just a random door. Sure enough, someone got in line behind him, then a couple more, and before you knew it, they were backed up around the block. No one asked what the line was for. They just assumed it was worth it. I can't say if that story was true. Maybe it's an urban legend, or a cold war myth. Who knows?

And then you got us. Yeah, we stopped the zombie menace, but we're the ones who let it become a menace in the first place. At least we're cleaning up our own mess, and maybe that's the best epitaph to hope for. Generation Z, they cleaned up their own mess.

Los monstruos que salían de sus tumbas no son nada comparados con los que llevamos dentro del corazón.

Joy, sadness, confidence, anxiety, love, hatred, fear-all of these feelings and thousands more that make up the human heart are as useless to the living dead as the organ of the same name. Who knows if this is humanity's greatest weakness or strength? The debate continues, and probably will forever.

Different places, different ages, completely different cultures, and yet they came up with similar weapons and tactics. Is there something about how we're wired, something universally human?

Oh C'mon. Can you ever solve poverty? Can you ever solve crime? Can you ever solve disease, unemployment, war or any other societal herpes? Hell no. All you can hope for is to make them manageable enough to allow people to get on with their lives. That's not cynicism, that's maturity. You can't stop the rain. All you can do is just build a roof that you hope won't leak, or at least leak on the people who are gonna vote for you.