Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 105 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 75 million copies in the United States alone.
Sparks wrote one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, over a period of six months at age 28. It was published in 1996 and he followed with the novels Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005) and its sequel, At First Sight (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice (2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010), The Best of Me (2011), The Longest Ride (2013), See Me (2015), Two by Two (2016), Every Breath (2018), The Return (2020), and The Wish (2021) as well as the 2004 non-fiction memoir Three Weeks With My Brother, co-written with his brother Micah. His twenty-third novel, Dreamland, was published on September 20, 2022.
Film adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels, including The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven (on all of which he served as a producer), The Lucky One, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John and The Last Song, have had a cumulative worldwide gross of over three-quarters of a billion dollars. The Notebook has also been adapted into a musical, featuring music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson.
Sparks lives in North Carolina. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually. He co-founded The Epiphany School in New Bern, North Carolina in 2006. As a former full scholarship athlete (he still holds a track and field record at the University of Notre Dame) he also spent four years coaching track and field athletes at the local public high school. In 2009, the team he coached at New Bern High School set a World Junior Indoor Record in the 4×400 meters, as well as US High School National Records in the 800 Medley and 1600 Medley. Click to watch the Runner’s World video with Nicholas.
The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was founded in 2011, to provide scholarships and fund educational programs for underprivileged and disadvantaged youth. Between the foundation, and the personal gifts of the Sparks family, more than $15 million dollars have been distributed to deserving charities, scholarship programs, and projects. Because the Sparks family covers all operational expenses of the foundation, 100% of donations are devoted to programs.
“How about we talk about your love life instead?" "Why? Are you in the mood to be depressed?”
“I want her to be smart and kind... and I want you to fall in love with her, because you shouldn't spend the rest of your life alone.”
“I want you to be.... happy.”
“There's nothing you can tell me that will change how I feel about you. Nothing. Because that isn't you. It's never been you. You're the woman I've come to know. The woman I love.”
“I love you, Katie. You might not be ready to say those words now, and maybe you'll never be able to say them, but that doesn't change how I feel about you.”
“But you're disappointed." He brushed a strand of hair from her face. "It's not possible for you to disappoint me.”
“I've wanted to go out with you from the first moment I saw you. I just had to wait until you were ready.”
“There's nothing better than a cold beer on a hot day at the beach.”
“Trust me on this: no one is better off alone.”
“Now I understand how Noah must have felt. Can you believe this storm? I've got puddles all over my kitchen.”
“Do you see these hands?" Jo said, holding them up. "These were made for caressing handsome men and meant to be adorned with pretty nails and diamond rings. They're not made for paint rollers and paint splatter and that kind of manual labor.”
“Makes sense to me. Sometimes starting over is exactly what a person needs. And I think it's admirable. A lot of people don't have the courage it takes to do something like that.”
“He didn't believe in a God who sifted through prayers, answering some and ignoring others, no matter how unworthy or worthy a person might be. Instead, he preferred to believe in a God who bestowed all people with gifts and abilities and placed them in an imperfect world; only then was faith tested, only then could faith be earned.”
“I never know what to tell them. I mean, there's nothing you can say to make a person stop hurting. Half the time, I just feel like telling them the truth. I'd say that for 3 months, you're going to feel worse than you've ever felt and you cope as best you can. And that after 6 months, the pain isn't so bad, but it still hurts more than you think it will. And even after years, you still find yourself thinking about the person you lost and get sad about it. And you still miss them all the time.”
“In the eulogy by the graveside, I told everyone how my sister and I used to sing to each other on our birthday. I told them that, when I thought of my sister, I could still hear her laughter, sense her optimism, and feel her faith. I told them that my sister was the kindest person I;ve ever known, and that the world was a sadder place without her in it. And finally, I told them to remember my sister with a smile, like I did, for even though she was being buried near my parents, the best parts of her would always stay alive, deep within our hearts.”
“When you know that someone close to you is going to die, there's a natural tendency to want to spend as much time with them as you can.”
“Relationships are the most important thing in life, and friends are a part of that.”
“What good is talking if neither of you are really committed? If one of you had an affair or got addicted to drugs or was abusive, simply talking about it wouldn;t take the hurt away; or fix the trust that's been lost. In the end, marriage comes down to actions. I think people talk too much about the things that bother them, instead of actually doing the little things that keep a marriage strong.”
“Commitment, I finally said. Both people have to be committed. I think if two people are committed to the marriage, if they really want to make it work, then they'll find a way to do it. No matter what happens in life.”
“She'd either be a heartless mother and wife or a spineless enabler, when all she really wanted was the man she'd once believed him to be.”
“It is a waste, for silence is pure.Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who arecomfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the greatparadox.”
“Love is a wonderful thing. It makes life worthwhile. I love being in love.”
“While wounds can be inflicted easily upon those we love, it's often much more difficult to heal them.”
“I'll think about you every day. Part of me is scared that there will come a time when you don't feel the same way,that you'll somehow forget what we shared, so this is what I want to do. Wherever you are and no matter what's going on in your life, when it's the first night of the full moon-like it was the first time we met-I want you to find it in the nighttime sky. I want you to think about me and the week we shared, because wherever I am and no matter what's going on in my life, that's exactly what I'll be doing. If we can't be together, at least we can share that, and maybe between the two of us, we can make it last forever.”
“It isn't. The greater the love, the greater the tragedy when it's over. These two elements always go together.”
“A person with autism lives in his own world, while a person with Asperger's lives in our world, in a way of his own choosing”
“Or maybe watching you enjoy a carefree summer while you fell in love was what kept me out of the hospital in the first place.”
“I know we loved each other, but distance can do strange things to people and before I was willing to tell you about it, I wanted to be certain that it would last”
“You're still alive. And that means you'll love and be loved...and in the end, nothing else really matters.”
“I love you,too, Garrett. But sometimes love isn't enough.”
“There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough”
“I realized that there were times when we talked not because we needed to communicate anything important, but simply because we each drew comfort from the other's voice”
“It sounds to me like you're making excuses," Jeb said quietly. "You're trying to convince yourself, and you're using me to listen to yourself talk.”
“By midnight Theresa was yawning steadily, and Garrett suggested that she get some sleep."But I came down here to see you," she protested drowsily."But if you don't get your sleep, I'll look blurry.”
“Noah Calhoun watched the fading sun sink lower from the wrap around porch of his plantation-style home.He liked to sit here in the evenings, especially after working hard all day.”
“It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
“Maybe I’d like tobe defined by what I am.”
“I truly believe that while love can hurt, love can also heal…”
“How can I describe how much I love you?Is it even possible to describe a love like that? I don’t know, but as Isit here with pen in hand, I know that I have to try.”
“One day you're going to learn something that can't be explained with science. And when that happens, your life's going to change in ways you can't imagine.”
“That's how I always want to remember my time with you. Like a pure white light, breathtaking to behold.”
“In all my life, I'd never been as sure of anything, and as much as I hoped to one day hear Savannah say these words to me, what mattered most was knowing that love was mine to give, without strings or expectations.”
“Spending time with you just feels...right,somehow. Easy, like the way it's supposed to be. Like it is with my parents. They're just comfortable together, and I remember growing up thinking that one day I wanted to have that, too.”
“In the blink of an eye, something happens by chance - when you least expect it - sets you on a course that you never planned, into a future you never imagined.”
“and in that instant, nothing else mattered. Not the song, not the place, not the other couples around him. Only this, only her.”
“Good and bad, strengths and faults, he was hers forever.”
“What's the best thing about being in college? Good teachers. They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don't know it.”
“And when her eyes met mine, I felt something click, like a key turning in a lock. Believe me, I'm no romantic, and while I've heard about love at first sight, I've never believed in it, and I still don't. But even so, there was something there, something recognizably real, and I couldn't look away.”
“But Noah, you're not supposed to do this, and I can't let you. So go back to your room." Then smiling softly and sniffling and shuffling some papers on the desk, she says: "Me, I'm going downstairs for some coffee. I won't be back to check on your for a while, so don't do anything foolish."She rises quickly, touches my arm, and walks toward the stairs. She doesn't look back, and suddenly I am alone. I don't know what to think. I look at where she had been sitting and see her coffee, a full cup, still steaming, and once again I learn that there are good people in the world.”
“Como é que sabes que era amor?Bem, sabe-se que é amor quando tudo o que nos apetece fazer é estar com a outra pessoa, e sabemos mais ou menos que a outra pessoa sente o mesmo.”