Randy Ingermanson Quotes

• “I'm going to write a novel and get it published. I'm going to do it because writing a novel is worthwhile and because I have the talent to do it.
  
  I'm going to do it because I have something important to say to the world.
  
  I refuse to let anything get in my way.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “Readers don't want to read about somebody else having powerful emotions. . . . Readers want to become somebody else for a few hours, to live an exciting life, to find true love, to face down unimaginable terrors, to solve impossible puzzles, to feel a lightning jolt of adrenaline.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “People would question anything having to do with God, but they wouldn’t question their own questions. They would challenge the authority of a theologian, but they wouldn’t challenge the authority of their buddy who claimed he had read a book that disproved the Bible.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “For a novelist, being ‘too emotional’ is often a good thing. The only thing you have to sell is your emotional experiences.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “Rivka believed that HaShem was both all-good and all-powerful—so good that he created people, so powerful that he gave them free will. And that made evil possible. If men could not choose evil, then they were not free. Therefore, the existence of evil was proof of HaShem’s great power to create those who could choose to oppose him.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “You need three major resources to have a successful writing career: time, writing space, and money.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “Words were something, and it was a lie from the enemy to say words were nothing. Words were something, because words led to actions. As a man thinks, so he is. As he speaks, so he becomes.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “Actually, the author’s job is more complicated than that,” said the Big Bad Wolf. “When an author gets a revision letter, she’s required by law to call her agent and complain bitterly about her mean, nasty, cruel editor who has bacon for brains. She whines and moans and complains for three hours. If she’s the emotional sort, she cries big buckets of tears. If she’s the unemotional sort, she makes secret plans to send her editor a letter bomb. Then her wise and brilliant agent talks her off the ledge, reminds her that she signed a binding legal contract, and suggests that maybe her editor might have said one or two non-moronic things in the revision letter.” “And eventually, when the author’s sanity returns, she rewrites her manuscript,” said Baby Bear.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “It was much easier to obey God when he said, “Fight!” or “Argue!” or “Sacrifice yourself!” But when he said, “Wait!”—that made things hard. Ari was good at that sort of thing. He”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “Please, you will do it anyway. When you hear to do a merciful thing, that is always at least a whisper from the heart of HaShem. Obedience will strengthen the ears of your spirit.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “Everything in your story world has one of three basic meanings to each character: good, bad, or neutral.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “You could tell a lot about someone by listening to him talk about his enemies.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “On the surface, Thorne’s mathematical reasoning is impeccable. Einstein’s equations indeed show that wormhole solutions allow for time to pass at different rates on either side of the wormhole, so that time travel, in principle, is possible. The trick, of course, is to create the wormhole in the first place.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “Baby Bear scratched his furry chin and looked at the class. “How many of you want your work to be read by millions?” Every student in the room raised their hands. “And what’s the best-selling novel series of the last twenty years?” Baby Bear asked. Mrs. Hubbard scowled. “It was those dreadful books about that Harvey Potter child. Witches and wizards and all sorts of wickedness.” “A very stupid book,” growled Little Pig. “I stopped reading after the first page, when I saw how that woman maligned those respectable Dursleys.” “And who was the target audience for the Harry Potter series?” asked Baby Bear. Nobody said anything. Goldilocks timidly raised her hand. “Wasn’t it … eleven-year-old boys?” Baby Bear began jumping up and down, clapping his fat little paws. “Yes! Boys, aged eleven. The smallest niche market you can imagine. Everybody knows that boys don’t read. Everybody knows that eleven-year-old boys absolutely, positively won’t read anything. Especially a book written by a woman. And yet …” “Harrumph!” Little Pig snorted. “Lots of people read the Harry Potter series. Although God only knows why anyone would read such nonsense.” Baby Bear scratched his ears. “The author wrote her books for a very tight niche market. Eleven-year-old boys. But she delighted those boys, and they talked about it to eleven-year-old girls. They were also delighted and talked about it to twelve-year-olds. Who talked about it to thirteen-year-olds. And so on, until everybody was talking about it. What made that work?” “A wicked spell?” said Mrs. Hubbard. “Great marketing of an inferior product,” said Little Pig. “Good writing that delighted her target audience?” said Goldilocks. “Exactly!” said Baby Bear. “So when you go to write your story, you are not going to write for the whole world. You are going to choose your target audience and define it as tightly as you know how. You are going to write your story to delight your target audience. You will not care about anybody else.” “But what if other people … hate my writing?” Goldilocks said. She couldn’t bear the thought of anybody not liking her novel. “You. Don’t. Care.” Baby Bear got so excited, he began running in tight little circles.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “A value is true because it's true because it's true.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “The dagger-men were both revolutionaries and bandits, killing the rich and robbing the poor.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “We see the Snowflake design for this book.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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• “As the children grew, Goldilocks took great joy in introducing them to the stories she had loved as a child. When her son went off to kindergarten, Goldilocks thought about looking for a job. But her resume now had a seven-year hole in it, and her practical skills were long out of date. The only jobs Goldilocks could qualify for were minimum wage. She suddenly realized that being practical had made her horribly unhappy. On a whim, Goldilocks decided to do the one thing she had always wanted more than anything else—she was finally going to write a novel. She didn’t care if it was impractical. She didn’t care if nobody would ever read her novel. She was going to do it just because she wanted to.”

  Randy Ingermanson

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