Max Barry

Birthday: 18 May 1973, Australia

Max Barry is one of today's brightest and most promising young writers that the world has seen; he has written the cult classic Syrup, the best-selling 'Jennifer Government', and his latest book, Company. He spent most of his years being a "miserable" marketer for Hewlett-Packard before he became a novelist. That later helped him write his third novel, Company, a satire on corporate America.He runs his own blog, which he converted in 2004, so as to keep his fans up to date on his work. He has also created the game Nation States, which helped advertise his second book, Jennifer Government; it is now one of the most popular games to play on the Internet. He now resides in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and baby daughter, Finn. Show less «

I have bought a lot of baby stuff. And I've noticed that many of the babies on the packaging don't l...Show more »

I have bought a lot of baby stuff. And I've noticed that many of the babies on the packaging don't look exactly picture-perfect. Which is understandable, since babies probably aren't very co-operative on photo shoots. But still, you'd expect the photographer to keep trying until they got one where the kid looked as if he was enjoying himself, wouldn't you? Show less «

{Talking about paint on a wall, while visiting relatives in Bedford, England} "I spent some time try...Show more »

{Talking about paint on a wall, while visiting relatives in Bedford, England} "I spent some time trying to work out what "Coo-Var Anti-Climb Paint" actually is. My first guess was that it's really sticky, so when people try to climb the fence they get stuck halfway up, and dangle there until the police come and hose them off. But I touched the wall and it didn't seem sticky. It didn't seem smooth, either, or smelly, or anything else that might discourage climbing. But if I jumped really high I could see a kind of black smear on the top of the wall, so I guessed that was it. And when I touched it, it was sticky. But not that sticky. So I'm still confused about what this product is meant to do." Show less «

In Syrup the characters have unusual names because that's what the more desperate marketing/advertis...Show more »

In Syrup the characters have unusual names because that's what the more desperate marketing/advertising types do, so I was taking the piss out of that. In Jennifer Government they have unusual names because of the corporate influence of the world they live in. They're very different reasons... yet fundamentally I think I may be incapable of writing a novel with characters who have normal names. Show less «

[Talking about his routine with daughter, Fin] "This is how it works: I get up at 6:30am, make mysel...Show more »

[Talking about his routine with daughter, Fin] "This is how it works: I get up at 6:30am, make myself a coffee, and start work. I have about 90 minutes to pound out some words before Fin wakes. (Which isn't that long. So I am writing Sunday mornings, too, to make up for it.) Then that's it: the rest of the day is just the two of us. So far we have caught the train into the city to look at comic books, walked along the river, visited a mall, and stopped off at an aquarium to inspect some fish. But where we go isn't the point; the amazing part is just having this incredible little girl all to myself. I know I am probably about the ten billionth person in history to feel like this, but it really is beautiful. It feels like an honor." Show less «

Publishers almost always change book covers from hardcover to paperback; I don't know why. Maybe the...Show more »

Publishers almost always change book covers from hardcover to paperback; I don't know why. Maybe they hope that people with bad memories for titles will buy it twice. Jennifer Government was an exception, but only because I managed to convince them not to change it. Show less «

Max Barry

Max Barry's FILMOGRAPHY

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