When I sit down to write, I don't have any real goals except to follow one good sentence with another... I'm not the kind of writer who has a map. Melissa Bank More Quotes by Melissa Bank More Quotes From Melissa Bank We are all children until our fathers die. Melissa Bank dies father children He tried to smile, but it was just a shape his mouth made. Melissa Bank shapes mouths made You did the best you could," and she seemed to believe I had. I said, "I've just been going through the motions," using the expression my father had after he'd watched my first tennis lesson. "Sweetie," she said, "that's what a lot of life is. Melissa Bank expression believe father She seems sort of lost.' I thought, Lost how? How am I lost? Suddenly I felt lost. Melissa Bank felt seems lost With so much sky and so much river, you couldn't help seeing the big picture. It was what you already knew, but crowding into the subway or rushing to a movie, you only saw it for a second, and close up. Now I took a good long look. I'd always heard you couldn't see stars in Manhattan because of all the lights. But here they all were. Here was my night in shining armor. Melissa Bank stars light night Sometimes you’re loved because of your weaknesses. What you can’t do is sometimes more compelling than what you can. Melissa Bank compelling weakness sometimes i realize i will never hear from dena again, and i will never call her. it gives me a chill. it is a strange thing to end a friendship, even if you know it's what you want. it's like a death; all of a sudden your experience of a person become finite. Melissa Bank strange want giving He said, "People wait their whole lives for the kind of happiness we have. Melissa Bank kind waiting people Whenever people say they didn't like the main character of a book, they mean they didn't like the book. The main character has to be a friend? I don't get that. Melissa Bank character mean book Olive Kitteridge' is a masterpiece: The writing is so perfect you don't even notice it; the story is so vivid it's less like reading a story than experiencing it firsthand. Melissa Bank reading perfect writing Before college, I hadn't voluntarily read anything that might be called literature; I didn't think I'd understand it; I never seemed to understand my English teacher's interpretations of what we read. Melissa Bank college teacher thinking Basically, all anyone has to do is ask me for fun details or tell me to be creative, and my mind turns to mud. I am instantly the most boring person you've ever met. Melissa Bank creative mind fun I tried to avoid Mimi. Her presence seemed to call forth every rejection I'd ever experienced-the teachers who'd looked at me as though I held no promise, the boys who didn't like me back. Around her, I became fourteen again. Melissa Bank rejection teacher boys It might sound ordinary for a woman to find out her husband's cheating on her, but not if you're the woman and it's your husband. Melissa Bank husband sound cheating I don't have any real goals except to follow one good sentence with another... I'm not the kind of writer who has a map. Melissa Bank maps real goal I live by Edith Whartons rule to get rid of anything neither useful nor beautiful. So I put the TV out on the street. Melissa Bank live-by tvs beautiful Finally, I asked how you got a boy to like you back. She said, 'Just be yourself,' as though I had any idea who that might be. Melissa Bank being-yourself boys ideas You will say good-bye for all the right reasons. You're tired of living in wait for his apocalypse. You have your own fight on your hands, and though it's no bigger or more noble than his, it will require all of your energy. It's you who has to hold on to earth. You have to tighten your grip -- which means letting go of him. Melissa Bank tired letting-go mean Up until that moment, I'd been at the earliest stage of love, when you feel it will turn you into the better person you want to be. Now, his gentle voice and sage advice took me to a later stage: I felt I needed to pretend to be a better person than I was so he'd keep loving me. This was hard because it made me hate him. Melissa Bank voice hate advice Time. There seems to be vast quantities of the stuff spooling around me in all directions, everywhere i look. Days and hours. Weeks and minutes. Years. The hard part, ive discovered, is filling it. Melissa Bank stuff looks years