I remember I used to come up to my teacher crying because I couldn't read. She would say: 'You can do this. You just don't want to do this.

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...

We live in such a service-based, globalised economy where very few people actually make anything and the people who do make stuff... it's all part of a massive global supply chain. So what if all those chains were suddenly cut, how would you make something? How would you keep people alive? And that was something I wanted to explore.

With so much protection, wouldn't one be able to wander among the undead ranks, taunting them at will with no danger of repercussion?

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.

I don't mind my work being a record of the time it was written in.

You can watch 'Dawn of the Dead' and still sleep at night. Try that with 'The Day After'.