Nicholas Sparks Quotations

It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. So you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.

I suppose more than anything, it's the way of life in this part of the country that influences my writing. In Eastern North Carolina, with the exception of Wilmington, most people live in small towns.

I do not use profanity in my novels. My characters all go to church.

Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing. It's one of the most enjoyable moments in life, period.

I suppose I'm most influenced by any good, commercial writer. I learn from everyone.

Romance is thinking about your significant other, when you are supposed to be thinking about something else.

Above all, a query letter is a sales pitch and it is the single most important page an unpublished writer will ever write. It's the first impression and will either open the door or close it. It's that important, so don't mess it up. Mine took 17 drafts and two weeks to write.

All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story.

Loving once and only once is possible - anything is possible.

I'm writing a new love story, set in eastern North Carolina. Surprise, surprise, huh?

I think that enduring, committed love between a married couple, along with raising children, is the most noble act anyone can aspire to. It is not written about very much.

The first thing I did when I sold my book was buy a new wedding ring for my wife and asked her to marry me all over again.

My wife, my family, my friends - they've all taught me things about love and what that emotion really means. In a nutshell, loving someone is about giving, not receiving.

I don't know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change.

If you look for me, I'm in the fiction section. Romance has its own section.

In all love stories the theme is love and tragedy, so by writing these types of stories, I have to include tragedy.

I think that men know how to romance a woman and most do it well, at least for a time, otherwise women wouldn't marry them. The problem is that most of them begin to rest on their laurels.

Spreading the news is your duty as a Christian, and there are many ways to do this.

Focus in on the genre you want to write, and read books in that genre. A LOT of books by a variety of authors. And read with questions in your mind.

I have certain moral parameters that I do not cross in writing; I don't write about adultery or kids having premarital sex.

Because publishing is becoming more business-oriented each day with more examination of the bottom line, it's harder to break out than ever.

To be quite honest, I've been very blessed when I've worked with Hollywood. The studios that have purchased my work to be adapted to film have really liked the work and wanted to stay as close as they could to what the book was.

I read over a hundred books a year and have done so since I was fifteen years old, and every book I've read has taught me something.

Over time, quality work will lead to an audience for your work.

Dramatic fiction - William Shakespeare made his biggest mark writing dramatic love stories.

I'll admit that it's not easy to get an agent, but becoming successful in anything requires perseverance.

What's the challenge in writing a novel that few people will read? I'm more than happy writing what I do and have no plans to change that.

Publishing is a business. Writing may be art, but publishing, when all is said and done, comes down to dollars.

By reading a lot of novels in a variety of genres, and asking questions, it's possible to learn how things are done - the mechanics of writing, so to speak - and which genres and authors excel in various areas.

I think, above all, the characters in my novels feel universal to the readers.

A typical agent in New York gets 400 query letters a month. Of those, they might ask to read 3-4 manuscripts, and of those, they might ask to represent 1.

I have a great wife and it's very easy to be romantic because it makes her happy and then my life is so much better when she's happy.

None of my characters are rich or famous, and the situations they find themselves in could happen to anyone.

There's always pressure, a great deal of pressure, when writing, since my first books were so successful.

I would be rejected if I submitted any of my novels as romance novels.

I very seldom, very seldom, even know what my characters look like.

Writing is communication above all, and I've made the choice to communicate with a large audience, which again is very hard to do.

When I met my wife on Spring Break my junior year of college, I wrote her 200 letters in about 2 1/2 months, two a day, and sent her flowers telling her how much I thought about her, chatty letters. She has boxes of love letters.

So I put out a search for him,

Silence is Holy. It draws people closer together. Because those who are only comfortable with each other, can sit without speaking.

Movies are fun, movies are an honor, but it's not something I dwell upon.

My life? It isn't easy to explain. It has not been the rip-roaring spectacular I fancied it would be, but neither have I burrowed with the gophers. I suppose it has most resembled the blue chip stock; fairly stable, more ups than downs, and gradually trending upward over time. A good buy, a lucky buy and I've learned that not everyone can say this about their lives. But do not be misled. I am nothing special; of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me, and my name will soon be forgotten, but I have loved someone with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.

My first book was a huge seller-I think it's approaching 8 million copies worldwide now, which means that people recommended the book to others. Why? I suppose it went to what's best in people-faith, love, loyalty-and that's how people like to see themselves.

Nine years ago, my mother died and my father wore black for a year and a half.

I love Bogue Banks, which is an island off the coast in North Carolina. It's a beautiful, if hurricane plagued, area of the country. I own a home there.

I had a very special girlfriend when I was younger-she is one of my wife's best friends now.

If I wasn't doing this, I have no idea what I'd be doing.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner have fewer published novels combined than any number of contemporary novelists-Roberts, King, Koontz, Steel, etc.

Having the book sell out of stores is far and away the most difficult step of all. Walk into a bookstore these days and scan the shelves. Thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of books, are competing with yours and the front of the store is dominated by brand-name authors.

Hurricanes are part of southern history, remembered for the damage they caused.

I wrote the first five pages last because I knew those would take a lot of time and had to be perfect to get the attention of an agent right away.

I write 2,000 words a day when I write. It sometimes takes three hours, it sometimes takes five hours.

My wife, my family, my friends-they've all taught me things about love and what that emotion really means. In a nutshell, loving someone is about giving, not receiving.

I still live in a small town, my wife and children keep me grounded.

I'm here to love you, to hold you in my arms, to protect you. I am here to learn from you and to receive your love in return. I am here because there is no other place to be.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE had to be told in third person to be effective.

You know, I do do the laundry in my house!

We attempt to be accepting of others. Sometimes we aren't, but at least we try.

You hope for the success, you dream about it, but you never expect it.

I very seldom, very seldom, even know what my characters look like. I keep it vague.

I've made numerous speeches for Alzheimers associations around the country for eight years now.

Promoting a book is always the same-busy but fun. I like to meet people who enjoy my work.

After Hurricane Katrina, my wife and I, like so many others, were going to help, but we wondered what the best way to help was, ... We went through Hurricane Floyd here, so we knew that a few years later there were people still living in trailers. That stuff is so terrible. So we decided to put our energy not into the post immediate stress, but rather the stress that sets in a week later when 'Oh my God. We have no house, no job, your school is gone.' Those kinds of things.

As for getting the right publisher, many times, you don't end up with much choice in the matter.

As for writing the second novel, the pressure was immense, but hey, what's life without a little challenge? I just sat down and forced myself to write and in the end, it sold as many copies as the first novel did.

A WALK TO REMEMBER is set in the late 1950s because that was the last really innocent period in schools.

A WALK TO REMEMBER is about the power of first, true love and the way it transforms an individual.

They got here on a Sunday, ... And by Tuesday we had them in a new house.

It's very difficult to find someone when you don't know the parent's names or have a street address,

It's not rocket science. You just gotta put them in the right order.

It's always exciting to sell a project to Hollywood, but it's scary at the same time because I give up all creative control.

Crazy things sometimes happen. Do you get my drift? I can't say that everything in the story is completely and a hundred percent Christian. But these are human characters.

The best part of having a movie adapted is knowing that more people will become familiar with my work.

I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered.

I knew I wanted the ending of the story to be poignant and heart-felt, and secondly, because I didn't know if I would be able to do that, since my previous novels hadn't been good enough to publish. If I couldn't do it, I didn't want to waste my time writing the rest of the novel, knowing it would collapse at the end.

I have no preference on writing in contemporary or historical periods-that decision is based on the story.

I have no desire to write screenplays-at heart, I'm a novelist.

I fully understand the Catch-22 with getting an agent: Agents want someone who's published before, but how can a person get published without an agent? As hard as it is, it happens all the time. All successful writers were once in the same boat you are, but they found a way to do it.

I am nothing special of this I am sure. I am just a common man with common thoughts. 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, that has always been enough.

I don't write romance novels, any more than Tom Clancy writes legal thrillers. Yes, I write about love and relationships and Tom Clancy writes a thriller, but what I do would not be accepted by romance publishers, since the romance genre has numerous requirements and I don't satisfy any of them. I write love stories, a completely different genre.

After all, if there is a heaven, we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you.

you might not understand but i gave you the best of me...

Being around someone who accepts and supports you will remind you to accept and support yourself.

People hide the truth because they're afraid.

I know what it's like to be day and night now; always together, forever apart.

These days she simply did the best job she could, accepting the good with the bad.

I will never forget the vision of Jamie walking towards me.

Even when we were standing in church and I was getting ready to take my vow I can remember wishing that you were standing there instead of him.

Two weeks together, that’s all it took, two weeks for me to fall in love with you. ♥

People want to believe that every marriage is perfect balance but it isn't. One person always loves more deeply than the other

I'm not saying it because I'm sweet. I'm saying it because I love you now and I always have. More than you can imagine.

I know. You could never hid anything. Your eyes always gave you away. You had the most wonderful eyes I'd ever seen." She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked discretely at him. When she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. "I think I loved you more that summer than I ever loved anyone.

It took strength to hold on to inner passion, and Noah had done that.

I know it can't be the same between us, but that doesn't change the way I felt about you then.

But most of all, what really attracted me to her was her manner. She laughed a lot, and it's easy to fall for someone who can find humor in any situation. She was also intelligent, well read, and well spoken, willing to listen and confident in her beliefs. And most of all, she was warm.

One of the things I've learned in my life is that sometimes you've got to take a chance.

...there are people who added goodness to the world and people who lived to destroy it.

It's a full moon here tonight, which makes me think of you. Because, I know that no matter what I am doing or where I am, this moon will always be the same size as yours, half a world away.

Trust me on this: no one is better off alone.

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.