Author: Kelsey Mihachik

“As soon as I stopped pretending and performing for people, I started attracting way more amazing ones. When you’re authentic, you attract people who want a self-actualized person, not some Mrs. Potato Head who is customized based on who she’s with.” – pg. 58

“I realized that the generation of women I’m proud to be a part of have no idea how to ‘take it easy.'” – pg. 111

“If I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that it’s short and the line of people dedicated to making your dreams come true is even shorter.” – pg. 115

“The song doesn’t say, ‘All you need is love, but when you have it, you should still put yourself first, have boundaries, and keep your social life.'” – pg. 225

“Everyone asks if being a female in comedy is hard, and I never have a good answer because I feel like everyone has a hard job. It’s hard to be a male and a female in any career because working sucks sometimes.” – pg. 253

“I think deglamorizing knowing everything is the way we can actually really get some insight.” – pg. 272

“Your life is a joke – and that’s the good news. Wake up and smell the comedy around you.” – pg. 23

“We usually think that we are the only sane ones in our families, but we are solely mistaken. We are not normal. We are comics.” – pg. 35

“Brave people are not unafraid. What distinguishes them is that they act despite the fear.” – pg. 46

“I’ve learned that it’s not always the person with the most talent who succeeds – it’s the one with the most endurance.” – pg. 51

“You might get depressed, because it will seem like every topic has been done. Well, yes, they have. Except for one, that is: your life.” – pg. 111

“There’s no safety net with brilliance.” – pg. 179

“Technique can carry you only so far. Passion and soul have to take you the rest of the way.” – pg. 211

“I fell into the trap of equating fame with success… It took me a long time to realize that success is a state of mind.” – pg. 276

“Sometimes it’s the little moments, when we take the time to recognize others, that we are truly a superstar.” – pg. 338

“A dopey letter is still a dopey letter, no matter how you dress it up.” – pg. 144

“The smack and clatter of a typewriter suggests that you’re actually building something. At the end of a miserable day, instead of grieving my virtual nothing, I can always look at my loaded wastepaper basket and tell myself that if I failed, at least I took a few trees down with me.” – pg. 147

“I know it sounds calculating, but if you’re not cute, you might as well be clever.” – pg. 156

“If I have one saving grace it’s that I’m lucky enough to have found someone willing to handle the ugly business of day-to-day living.” – pg. 247

“For a long period of time, you go through this period of swearing you will never make the same mistakes as your parents. But then you realize that they didn’t really make mistakes. They just did what had to be done. That’s just the way it works out sometimes.” – Tom Hanks, pg. 42

“How romantic to learn that your best-friend-turned-lover adores you for you. Your personalities. Your eccentricities.” – pg. 83

“It takes courage to love. And there’s always going to be problems. And you have to have a certain faith that the problems will be solved.” – Shanley, pg. 101

“You just have to make it up as you go along and hope you don’t screw it up too horribly.” – Nora Ephron, pg. 107

“[Tom] thought Sleepless wasn’t so much about the fate as the idea that ‘one person’s second chance can be the other person’s first.'” – pg. 132

“I don’t think that there’s a million people you can fall in love with… I actually think to make a great match is a very lucky thing.” – Delia Ephron, pg. 174

“There’s no one who’s more romantic than a cynic.” – Nora Ephron, pg. 175

“The idea that there is someone out there that maybe no one else can touch, for you.” – David Word, pg. 198

“Many of life’s flops, like marriages, are obvious in retrospect. If you knew it, you wouldn’t do it, but you didn’t, so you did.” – Delia Ephron, pg. 212

“The older you get, you’re going to realize that things change and there’s not very much that you can do about it.” – Nora Ephron, pg. 269

“The Ephron woman makes us feel less alone in a man’s world – and inspires us not to give up.” – pg. 295

“It’s an incredible gift to be able to make your own fun.” – pg. 12

“You cannot just blithely drift through life in your canoe whilst turning a blind eye to the bullshit going on around you.” – pg. 67

“Such a sunny disposition can make a body powerfully stupid some of the time, but it’s mostly worked out for me so far.” – pg. 133

“No matter how you decide to spend a little more time on your gestures of giving, the point is just quite simply that you do.” – pg. 174

“Engage in romantic love. It truly makes life worth living. Romance affords you the opportunity to do a lot of giving, which I believe I have read is said to be better than receiving.” – pg. 255

“Make your life happy. Sounds pretty simple, right?” – pg. 311

“I don’t achieve my happiness by taking it easy, but instead by using my time and abilities to be productive.” – pg. 319

“My attitude was I’ll strike whenever I want to because I’ll just make the iron hot whenever I damn well please.” – pg. 143

“It was a way of acknowledging how much we loved what we got to do, and how much we wanted to hold onto it.” – pg. 159

“Sometimes drinking away your problems in a bar is exactly the right way to solve them.” – pg. 188

“For a guy who has spent pretty much his whole life dedicated to extremes, it’s a daily challenge not to mistake serenity for boredom.” – pg. 319

“But if I’m going to stay sober and stay sane, I need to accept that there will come a day when nothing comes next. Eventually it all ends. I’d be lying if I said I was okay with that right now. Hell, I may never be. But I’m trying.” – pg. 322

“Something terrible can happen to you, and yet, the day after this something terrible, the sun still rises, and life goes on. And therefore, so must you.” – pg. 49

“Your first major work experience tends to be formative, something you remember vividly for the rest of your life.” – pg. 80

“I think that so many of us went on to bigger things because we were there for each other early: friends and friendly competitors, pushing ourselves to heights we would’ve never reached individually.” – pg. 86

“Beyond the amount-of-work aspect, is your work creatively fulfilling? Innate creativity is a wonderful blessing.” – pg. 127

“If I was going to make it in the movies, I’d have to be brave enough to be me.” – pg. 198

“The mark of a man is not just how he survives it all but also what wisdom he’s gained from the experience.” – pg. 310

“When you start your career, you worry about how you’re going to pay the rent. But when that’s covered, you feel an even greater pressure: How do you stay interested?” – pg. 311

“As for the grander questions, their answers will surely reveal themselves. Someday. In a fleeting moment.” – pg. 318

“New experiences and ideas kept – and keep – me alive.” – pg. 42

“Get your shit together so you can help others. It’s all I really ever wanted to do: figure out what I’m good at and put it out into the world.” – pg. 48

“I no longer wanted to write like them. I wanted to write like me.” – pg. 106

“It didn’t matter who initiated the idea. It only mattered that we made the idea the best it could become.” – pg. 233

“Science is always your friend. Remember that. Whenever you need to combat society’s self-righteous, imposing, and overly judgmental morality – what would Jesus do, protecting the environment, respecting other people, etc. – a strong scientific defense will usually give you a way out. It’s hard to argue with facts. Still, many people will try.” – pg. 8

“We murder, maim, spread disease, and scare the shit out of one another as much as any lion, tiger, or bear ever has.” – pg. 14

“But even if they’re willing to comply, the more people you fold into your scheme, the worse everything gets.” – pg. 45

“Women are just like us. Consciously or unconsciously, they are always looking for something better. Even good girls will look for something better if you give them a reason.” – pg. 53

“You are the one person you should never lie to. You spend enough time bullshitting other people. You’re the home team. Never fuck with the home team.” – pg. 83

“Crazy women are just crazy, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. So stop beating yourself up and trying to figure it out.” – pg. 178

“Kids of the world deserve parents who are living vital, connected, passionate lives, in partnership with a supportive mate.” – pg. 27

“Everyone who is at all successful in comedy has had a secret comedy dork life in their adolescence.” – pg. 65

“Sometimes the people you need come into your life at just the right time.” – pg. 91

“So many things occur in the course of our lives that upon reflection they feel like they were meant to happen.” – pg. 103

“Many of us come to a time in our lives when the beliefs we grew up with collide with the reality of the world we find ourselves living in. It’s a common theme for the twentysomething-or-other.” – pg. 148

“Happiness is not something ‘just around the corner’ or ‘over the hill’ or that can be enjoyed as soon as you have a certain level of material comfort. It’s a moment-to-moment choice. Joy and contentment come from daily, hourly, minutely, secondly decisions to be grateful for what you have.” – pg. 190

“I knew that ultimately I needed to be myself, and screw whatever other people thought of me.” – pg. 197

“Sometimes repeated rejection is simply the All-Encompassing Creative Life Force preparing you for something greater, a different and grander plan.” – pg. 214

“There’s kind of a strange paradox in happiness. The more we seek it for ourselves, the harder it often is to find.” – pg. 285

“When you are able to tell your own story, you heal yourself.” – pg. 291