I have to avoid things like 'World of Warcraft' or 'Minecraft', otherwise I'd never get any work done.

Ernest Cline

Categorized in : World Done World Of Warcraft

You're probably wondering what's going to happen to you. That's easy. The same thing is going to happen to you that has happened to every other human being who has ever lived. You're going to die. We all die. That's just how it is.

humans easy wonder

It is on!" Aech shouted into his comlink. "it is on like Red Dawn... by Ernest Cline

It is on!" Aech shouted into his comlink. "it is on like Red Dawn!

red-dawn red dawn

My characters are all kind of geek archetypes of people I've encountered at gaming and comic book conventions.

character book people

I notice when I'm at a party where I don't know anybody - even if I have nothing in common with somebody - we can still talk because we were raised by the same TV and cartoons and movies.

tvs party cartoon

Everybody uses pop culture as a shorthand. You might make an obscure reference to Monty Python or Iron Eagle that only some people will get, but if they do it conveys a world of meaning.

iron eagles python

I've retroactively made all that wasted time rotting my brain into research. It makes me a hypocrite when I try to tell my own daughter, "I don't know, I think we've played a little too much Mario."

daughter hypocrite thinking

I wanted to be able to write in the voice that I talk to my friends and assume that everybody would know what I was talking about.

voice writing talking

I've been invited to speak at about 20 colleges. There's always this moment when I'm having dinner with the college president: 'Ernie, where'd you go to school?'

president college school

As far as my house, I have a ton of video games and three or four... by Ernest Cline

As far as my house, I have a ton of video games and three or four old consoles.

three games house

I was just starting out, trying to become a screenwriter, and I became the Austin slam champion three times. For a nerdy, kind of a socially awkward guy, that did wonders for my self esteem.

champion guy self-esteem

My favorite video game of all time is called 'Black Tiger'. It's a Capcom Dungeons and Dragons game from 1987. I have the actual arcade version sitting in my office.

dragons office games

In the far reaches of the world, under a lost and lonely hill, lies the TOMB OF HORRORS. This labyrinthine crypt is filled with terrible traps, strange and ferocious monsters, rich and magical treasures, and somewhere within rests the evil DemiLich.

lonely evil lying

I don't know if the '80s were unique, but we certainly got original, groundbreaking stuff at the time with movies like 'Back to the Future' and 'Star Wars' - movies that became classics.

stars unique war

I was 7 years old when the '80s began and 17 years old when they ended, so it was an incredibly formative decade for me.

decades 80s years

Everybody uses pop culture as a shorthand. by Ernest Cline

Everybody uses pop culture as a shorthand.

pops use culture

For one quarter, Black Tiger lets me escape from my rotten existence for three glorious hours. Pretty good deal.

rotten black three

I don't even think I was quite a year old. My mother was maybe seven months pregnant with my little brother. I was sucked out of her arms, and she landed 75 yards away from our trailer and had a ruptured disc. The tornado set me down on top of this pile of corrugated lumber and scrap metal.

think me brother mother

I spent most of my childhood welded to my Atari 2600, until I got... by Ernest Cline

I spent most of my childhood welded to my Atari 2600, until I got my first computer, a TRS-80.

until got first childhood

In a book, you can describe a scene and have any song you want playing on the radio and have any painting you want hanging on the wall. That was really freeing to me when I was writing 'Ready Player One.' I could throw in everything that I love.

me you song love

'Star Wars' was the mythology of my youth. I longed for adventure... by Ernest Cline

'Star Wars' was the mythology of my youth. I longed for adventure.

star mythology youth adventure