Quotes from Nicholas Sparks

Not really. I suppose it depends on how you look at it. For me . . . well, it just adds a richness you wouldn't otherwise get. People come, people go—they'll drift in and out of your life, almost like characters in a favorite book. When you finally close the cover, the characters have told their story and you start up again with another book, complete with new characters and adventures. Then you find yourself focusing on the new ones, not the ones from the past.

You could have told me earlier." "You seemed so serious about the game. I didn't want to bother you.

Dusk, I realized, is just an illusion, because the sun if either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are: there cannot be one without the other, yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel, I remember wondering, to be always together, yet forever apart? I know the answer now. I know what it's like to be day and night now: always together, forever apart.

Hey, Dad? Yeah? Jonah walked in silence for a few steps. It's okay if you like Miss Andrews. Miles looked down in surprise. It is? Yeah, he said seriously. Because I think she likes you.

because it was then, as he held her in his unwavering gaze, that she knew she was in love with him as well.

You kissed me yes, But it was not just goodnight even then I could feel the promise in it. The promise that you could kiss me like that forever.

Like Jesus said 'blessed are the lazy who lie on boats, for they shall inherit a suntan

And while he was doing those things, he thought about Allie and the love that was missing from both their lives.

You've been through a lot in your life. Too much, I sometimes think. But you keep going. I have to. I've got someone counting on me.

Her father was dying, and he wanted her forgiveness.

Not everything, he said. Not the important things. My kids are safe. You're safe. That's all I really care about. This - he said motioning - is just stuff. Most of it can be replaced. It just takes time.

I can't make this decision for you…this one's yours. I want you to know, though, that I love you. And I always will. I know that doesn't help, but it's all I can do.

Even his highly emotional Italian mother didn't believe that true love could blossom overnight. Like his brothers and sisters-in-law, she wanted nothing more for him than to marry and start a family, but if he showed up at her doorstep and said that he'd met someone two days ago and knew she was the one for him, his mother would smack him with a broom, curse in Italian, and drag him to church, sure that he had some serious sins that needed confessing.

At Times, even he admitted that he'd been more an observer of the world than a participant in it, and in moments of painful honesty, he sometimes believed he was a failure in all what was important

I'm so sorry… just please… stay. Just tell me the truth, just tell me what happened. I don't care, I'm not going to let him hurt you anymore. Listen to me, I'm in love with you. If you stay I promise there's no safer place in the world than with me. You don't have to be scared… I love you… please stay.

No, I mumble. I try to shake my head but can't, the agony making it impossible. I want to stay awake. I want to be with you. Do not worry. I will be here when you wake. But you were gone before. I was not gone. I was here and I will always be here. How can you be so sure? She kissed me again before answering. Because, she says, her voice tender, I am always with you, Ira.

without music he felt aimless and adrift.

That she had somehow taken the initiative to learn my name should have struck me then, but it did not. Instead, as she stood on the street with the rain coming down and mascara running onto her cheeks, all I could think was that I'd never seen anyone more beautiful.

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.

How had I become middle-aged while the ravages of time ignored her? I didn't know and didn't care, and before I could stop them, the words were already out. You're beautiful, I murmured.

Aside from coffee, reading was her only indulgence.

But wisdom means more than being intelligent, because it encompasses understanding, empathy, experience, inner peace, and intuition, and

You've been giving me the full-court press since you got here, and we know what'll happen if I let you through that door. But you're leaving. And when you do, I'll be the one who's hurt afterward. So why start something you have no intention of finishing?" - Lexie

Theresa, remember - you've got nothing to lose. The worst that could possibly happen is that you fly home in a couple of days. That's all. You're not going on a quest to search for a tribe of cannibals. You're just going to find out if your curiosity was warranted.