I have all the ingredients, and I am impatient.

[Ptah]

I'm going to make banana bread.

I have fresh bananas that I want to use.

Is there some way to ripen them quickly?

I don't like waiting seven to nine days for them to brown and soften.

[4dog]

1. You can put them in a bag, but don't discard patience

[Sanity Claws]

2. Yes, but make sure it is a paper bag

There is some science behind this. The bananas emit a gas; by trapping the gas in the paper bag with the bananas, the bananas will ripen faster.

[RockRaven]

3. In a paper bag, with another ripe/ripening fruit such as an apple if you have one.

Ripening fruits produce ethylene, which is a gas, which acts as a plant hormone to accelerate ripening in a sort of positive feedback loop. Trapping the tiny amounts of ethylene which the ripening fruit emits in a paper bag rather than allowing it to drift away into the larger body of air which is the room and beyond will help those bananas ripen faster.

[Kali]

4. just mash them, they will be fine

you could try freezing and defrosting but that will take at least a day or so also...

[NotASurfer]

5. I've seen recipes that bake the bananas first

I thing that works, provided your bananas are already sweetening up.

If they're green OTOH, maybe check out recipes for plantain bread and pretend green bananas are substitutes for ripe plantains

(Late to the banana bread party tonight, so if you're already noshing away I hope it turned out good!)