Quotes by Nicholas Sparks

Love means to see the one you love happy.

There's no love like the first.

Sometimes you have to be apart from people you love, but that doesn't make you love them any less. Sometimes you love them more.

There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have the feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well.

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

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

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.

Little girls. They could melt the toughest hearts.

Alzheimer's it is a barren disease, as empty and lifeless as a desert. It is a thief of hearts and souls and memories.

Being in love, I find myself smiling for no reason at all.

When people cared about each other, they always found a way to make it work.

If they were meant to be together they would find a way to do it.

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That's what I hope to give you forever.

I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with in the years we were apart.

Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face--I know it's an impossibility, but I cannot help myself.

People in pain don't always see things as clearly as they should.

Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doin them with the right people.

The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals.

She leaned into me, and when I closed my eyes, I knew I wanted nothing more than to hold her this way forever.

If Alex has chosen you, then I want you to believe that I have chosen you as well.

You're still alive. And that means you'll love and be loved...and in the end, nothing else really matters.

He wanted to say that all this talk of feelings was irrelevant. That emotions come and go and can't be controlled, so there's no reason to worry about them. That in the end, people should be judged by their actions, since in the end, it was actions that defined everyone.

When a wife wouldn't testify, little punishment was meted out. Alex came to understand that only those who pressed charges ever became truly free, because the life they were leading was a prison, even if most of them wouldn't admit it.

Never forget that anticipation is an important part of life.

I think... that when it comes to us, anything is possible.

You might not believe it...but you make the world a better place when you smile.

He thought of her often, and he missed the companionship they'd once shared and the friendship that had been the bedrock of their marriage at its best.

Love is a wonderful thing. It makes life worthwhile. I love being in love.

Two cannibals were eating a comedian, and one of them turns to the other and asks, 'Does this taste funny to you?

You're beautiful and charming, and I can't stop thinking about last night. No, he
didn't say that. Not exactly, anyway. What Sarah heard was, Hey--how are you?

We'd met at a carefree time, a moment full of promise, in its place now were the harsh lessons of the real world.

Because being comfortable meant she might lower her guard, and she could not let that happen.

That's what dating is for, after all -- to learn if you're compatible with someone.

I have no complaints about my path and the places it has taken me; enough complaints to fill a circus tent about other things, maybe, but the path I've chosen has always been the right one, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

When you're struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it's just as hard as what you're going through.

Staring at the stars was like staring backward in time, since some stars are so far away that their light takes millions of years just to reach us. That we see stars not as they look now, but as they were when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The whole concept just struck me as…amazing somehow.

God's voice is usually nothing more than a whisper, and you have to listen very carefully to hear it. But other times, in those rarest of moments, the answer is obvious and rings as loud as a church bell.

And I'd be struck a new by the finality of Ruth's absence.

We're not the same people we were then. We've changed, we've grown.

Miles: Well, things are kind of complicated right now. When you're
a grown-up, you'll understand.
Jonah: I don't want to be a grown-up.
Miles: Why not?
Jonah: Because grown-ups always say that things are complicated.

Grown-ups always say that things are complicated.

In the distance, he could see Molly lying in the tall grass off to the side of the house.

Mom says it's because she has PMS.
Do you even know what that means?
I'm not a little kid anymore. It means pissed-at-men syndrome.

Gossip is one thing, hurtful gossip is completely another, and even in high school we weren't THAT mean.

In the end, people should be judged by their actions, since in the end, it was actions that defined everyone.

He wanted to say that all this talk of feelings was irrelevant. That
emotions come and go and can't be controlled, so there's no reason to worry about them. That in the end, people should be judged by their actions, since in the end, it was actions that defined everyone.

Our lives can't be measured by our final years, of this I am sure.

There are always differences when you adapt a novel to a film. A novel is longer so you're automatically cutting out elements and introspection but this is actually a film that stays very close to the novel.

She laughed, and the sound was so melodic that I knew I wanted to hear it again.

Henry nodded, thinking, 'If you were any more whipped, little brother, they'd serve you on ice cream.

It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember.

I've learned that we're all entitled to have our secrets.

You're a hero and a gentleman, you're kind and honest, but more than that, you're the first man I ever truly loved. And no matter what the future brings, you always will be, and I know that my life is better for it.

More than anything, he wanted to return to the house with the same look of peace that he'd seen on Pastor Harris's face, but he trudged through the sand, he couldn't help feeling like an amateur, someone searching for God's truths like a child searching for seashells.

The movies are fun, but I'm a novelist. In many ways, screenwriting is much easier than writing novels. I find screenplays twenty times easier to write than a novel.

But wasn't a relationship supposed to be just that? A relationship? Both partners doing everything they could to keep the other satisfied?

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.

When I was seventeen, I don't think I even knew what love was. But when it's right, it's right, and you just know it.

There's always a 'but' when it comes to jobs. Like, I love my job but my colleagues are first-rate, but...a couple of them like to dress like superheroes on the weekend and I can't help but wonder if they're nuts. -- Logan.

Who am I? And how, I wonder, will this story end?

Men like women who know how to be subtle.

If I tried to write long-hand, I suppose I'd never finish a novel. I edit too much as I write -- the paper would be white-out and sharpie marks. Writing with a computer works for me, so I stick with it.

It was a lesson that I would learn in time though it wasn't Hegbert who taught me.

It's the same thing. Passion is passion. It's the excitement between the tedious spaces, and it doesn't matter where it's directed.

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.

Women had a tendency to see what they wanted to see i men, at least in the beginning.

While I find inspiration in real life, the actual stories are, thankfully, works of fiction -- which, given the considerable turmoil in my character's lives, is probably a good thing!

I have always had an interest in how cultural rituals play into something as unpredictable as romance.

Too many people seem to believe that silence was a void that needed to be filled, even if nothing important was said.

That's the thing about being the product of happily marries parents, You grow up thinking the fairy tale is real, and more than that, you think you're entitled to live it. So far, though, it wasn't working out as planned.

I can say that I don't have a lot of leisure time, just sitting around doing absolutely nothing, but that's okay.

In another time and place, she might have felt differently, but thinking along those lines was pointless now.

When she was able to imagine a different life that might have been hers, the kind of life she knew that she'd always really wanted.

Dawson, she knew, had saved Alan's life- but in the end, he'd saved Jared's as well. And for her that meant...everything. 'I gave you the best of me,' he'd told her once, and with every beat of her son's heart, she knew he'd done exactly that.

It was one thing, after all, to know his feelings for Amanda hadn't changed; it was another thing entirely to face the future with the certainty that they never would.

On the drive we talked easily, but we did make a small detour. After pulling into a rest stop, we made out like teenagers.

He'd lived long enough to know that everyone handled grief in different ways, and little by little, they all seemed to accept their new lives.

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.

Their fingers seemed to fit together in just the right way- effortlessly clasped,like perfect complements.

Usually, I start thinking about my next novel soon after completing the latest, and it can take anywhere from a month to 6 months to come up with a story.

Until you came along, I never knew how much I'd been missing. I never knew that a touch could be so meaningful or an expression so eloquent; I never knew that a kiss could literally take my breath awa.

For desert, maybe we can split a couple of crumbs.

I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it to the earnestness of others.

Mike, however, heard nothing at all. Lost in her breathlike touch, he knew only one thing for sure: In the instant their lips first met, there was a flicker of something almost electrical that made him believe the feeling would last forever.

Frugality, I've learned, has its own cost, one that sometimes lasts forever.

I had no choice. Love does funny things to people.

I wait. with all my dreams, i know her heart, and i know i'm almost there.

Sometimes, things don't work out the way we want them to.

Always stick to the story. It was when you started backtracking that people got in trouble. Interrogation 101.

Women are more attuned to feelings than men are, and if they're not being truthful, more often than not it's because they think truth might hurt your feelings. But it doesn't mean they don't love you.

I'm a novelist at heart. My sole intention is to write the best novel possible. I don't think about the film potential at all.

You have the Best Of Me.

The truth is, the world isn't easy for any of us. It never has been and it never will be.

I gave you the best of me.

I don't know that I've ever felt as happy as I did that day, but then again, it was always like that when we were together. I never wanted it to end.

I gave you the best of me, he'd told her once, and with every beat of her son's heart, she knew he'd done exactly that.

In the end, you really want to make the best film that you can, and in the reality of the filmmaking world, you have things like budgets.

Books and movies inspire me, but I do my best to keep my stories as original as possible.

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.

After I got shot, you want to know the very first thing that entered my mind? The U.S. Mint. I am coin in the U.S. Army. Now, I have two small holes in me. I'm no longer perfectly culled. Do you want to know the very last thing that entered my mind, You.

Dear John, tell me everything. Write it all down, that way, we'll be with each other all the time, even if we're not with each other at all.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you two make me believe that true love really exists. And that even the darkest hours can't take that away.

It was inevitable, of course, but somehow it didn't seem right to Alex that they would never remember the sound of Carly's laughter, or know how deeply she'd once loved them.

And there had been times when he wished he'd been born into a different family.

Outside the hospital, I squinted in the harsh morning sunlight. I could hear birds chirping in the tree, but even though I searched for them, they remained hidden from me.

The sky grew darker and the moon rose higher as the evening wore on. and without either or them being conscious of it, they began to regain the intimacy, the bond of familiarity, they had once shared.

Katie smiled and turned away, knowing it wasn't an illusion or a figment of her imagination. She knew what she saw. She knew what she believed.

And all I could think was that I would like to spend every morning for the rest of my life waking up beside her.

Because everybody lies. It's part of living in society .

People will tell you most of the story… and I've learned that the part they neglect to tell you is often the most important part. People hide the truth because they're afraid.

Everyone makes mistakes, even if some are worse than others. Accidents happen.

She liked to sit on the front porch in the afternoons and read books she'd checked out from the library. Aside from coffee, reading was her only indulgence.

You need to learn patience, you grasshopper.

She squinted up at him. But I haven't always made good decisions. Pastor Harris smiled. All that shows is that you're human.

It would be like describing colors to someone blind from birth: The words might be understood, but the concept would remain mysterious and private.

The search for God's presence was much of a mystery as God himself, and what was God if not a mystery?

If pinpointing God's presence were really that simple, then he supposed the beaches would be more crowded in the mornings. They would be filled with people on their own quests, instead of people jogging or walking their dogs or fishing in the surf.

I don't write fantasy, I write reality. Also, my novels have roots to Greek tragedies and as such, there has to be tragedy.

I want you to be.... happy.

She would tell him what she wanted in her life -- her hopes and dreams for the future -- and he would listen intently and then promise to make it all come true. And the way he said it made her believe him, and she knew how much he meant to her.

It'll be hard, but life moves fast-we'll see each other again. I know that. I can feel that. Just like I can feel how much you care for me and how much I love you.

Now as he watched Katie toying with a ring that wasn't there, he felt his old investigative instincts kick in. There'd been a husband, he thought; her husband was the missing element. Either she was still married or she wasn't, but he had an undeniable hunch that Katie was still afraid of him.

I love you, he finally whispered. She leaned forward and touched his face. I know. And I love you, too.

She was, in other words, the kind of girl who made the rest of us look bad, and whenever she glanced my way, I couldn't help but feel guilty, even though I hadn't done anything wrong.

Jamie saved my life. She taught me everything. About life, hope and the long journey ahead. I'll always miss her. But our love is like the wind. I can't see it, but I can feel it.

I personally think that most people, most of the time, do the right thing. I just believe this. Otherwise, the world would be chaos, and it's not.

The key to happiness was achievable dreams.

The key to happiness is achievable dreams.

I know that somehow, every step I took since the moment I could walk was a step towards finding you.

I love you too, Will Blakelee, she whispered, leaning in to kiss him again.

Always listen to your heart, because even though its on your left side, its always right.

My mom used to tell me that whatever you do, marry someone who loves you more than you love him.

As for another profession ... I suppose I'd manage a global-macro hedge fund. I love that kind of stuff. Weird, I know, but I find it fascinating.

There is nothing like love. You should try it. Thibault shrugged. Maybe one day.

In a nutshell, loving someone is about giving, not receiving.

I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless them, and I find myself wondering why -- out of all the people in all the world I could ever have loved -- I had to fall in love with someone who was taken away from me.

I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless him.

If some lives form a perfect circle, other take shape in ways we cannot predict or always understand. Loss has been part of my journey. But it has also shown me what is precious. So has love for which I can only be grateful.

Constellations shine with light that was emitted aeons ago, and I wait for something to come to me, words that a poet might use to illuminate life's mysteries. But there is nothing.

Knowing there's one thing I still haven't told you: I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen.

I hope to be remembered as an author who defined and exemplified excellence in crafting the modern love story.

Unless you had a popular video on YouTube or could perform shows in front of thousands, musical ability meant nothing.

Relationships are the most important thing in life, and friends are a part of that.

Our souls were one, if you must know and never shall they be apart; with splendid dawn, your face aglow i reach for you and find my heart.

She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my own heartbeat. I think about her all the time. Even now, when I'm sitting here, I think about her. There could never have been another.

The romantics would call this a love story, the cynics would call it a tragedy.

That's my sweetheart in there. I'm not living her. This is my home now. Your mother is my home.

Every great love starts with a great story.

Yes... it wasn't over, it still isn't over.

That's my sweetheart in there. Wherever she is, that's where my home is.

I lost you once, I think I can do it again.

We fell in love despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created.

She had known the kind of love that was worth risking everything for, the kind of love that was as rare as a glimpse of heaven.

Each recognized the fact that real commitment could be proven only through the passage of time.

Love is Love no matter old you are, and I knew if I gave you enough time, you'd come back to me.

Marriage is about becoming a team. You're going to spend the rest of your life learning about each other, and every now and then, things blow up. But the beauty of marriage is that if you picked the right person and you both love each other, you'll always figure out a way to get through it.

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

People plan, God laughs, or something like that.

I cry to you, my Lord, my rock! Do not be deaf to me, for if you are silent, I shall go down to the pit like the rest. Hear my voice raised in petition as I cry to you for help, as I raise my hands, my Lord, toward your holy of holies.

Savannah sometimes sounded a lot like the little voice that had taken up residence in my head but never bothered paying rent, and right now it whispered that if I felt guilty, maybe I was doing something wrong.

When I told you that I'd pray for you, what did you think I was talking about?

She was everything I wanted. She was beautiful and charming, with a quick sense of humor, and she supported me in everything I did.

Mom says it's because she has PMS. Do you even know what that means? I'm not a little kid anymore. It means pissed-at- men syndrome.

If it came down to that, I'd protect you in a heartbeat.

It is at moments like these that I know my what my purpose is in life. I am 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.

See, that was the problem in relationships when emotion began muddying the waters. It was as if Lexie expected him to do or say exactly the right thing at exactly the right time, whatever that was.

Never forget that God is your friend. And like all friends, He longs to hear what's been happening in your life. Good or bad, whether it's been full of sorrow or anger, or even when you're questioning why terrible things have to happen.

You know the real me, she said, stopping to peer up at him. More than anyone else.

There are lots of real men out there -- men who could fall in love with you at the drop of a hat.

At night, when I am alone, I call for you, and whenever my ache seems to be the greatest, you still seem to find a way to return to me.

How should you stop looking for the girl you love? And tell yourself that it's time to move on .

My novels are in the literature section as opposed to the romance section of bookstores because they're not romance novels. If I tried to have them published as romances, they'd be rejected. I write dramatic fiction; a further sub-genre would classify them as love stories.

Love puts all logic to sleep. Otherwise, we wouldn't risk it.

There were moments in life when violence was necessary to save lives.

Because it protects you. And when I jumped from the Humvee, I believed it would save me, too, in the same way you believe it will always save you. No, I don't, Thibault began. Then why, my friend, do you still carry it with you?

The emotions attached to them were like sand castles in the tide, slowly washing out to sea.

Dreams are always crushing when they don't come true. But it's the simple dreams that are often the most painful because they seem so personal, so reasonable, so attainable. You're always close enough to touch, but never quite close enough to hold and it's enough to break your heart.

Remember: A best-selling book usually follows a simple rule, It's a wonderful story, wonderfully told; not, It's a wonderfully told story.

She was sleeping in a quiet bedroom beside her brother, separated only by glass and sand from the young man she loved, a young man who loved her back.

Just when you think it can't get any worse, it can.