Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of three children to Elizabeth (née Roe) and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. When Milius was seven his father sold his business, retired and moved to California, where Milius became an enthusiastic surfer. Milius is Jewish.\n', '

At fourteen, Milius\'s parents sent him to a small private school, the Lowell Whiteman School, in the mountains of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, "because I was a juvenile delinquent."\n', '

Milius became a voracious reader and started to write short stories. "I had learned very early, to write in almost any style. I could write in fluent Hemingway, or in fluent Melville, or Conrad, or Jack Kerouac, and whatever." He says he was also influenced by the oral story telling of surfers at the time, who had a beatnik tradition.\n', '

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