Nicholas Sparks famous quotes

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Eye #Chance #Blink

When you fall in love, love deeply. Be tough but also be open to the possibility of forgiveness.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Falling In Love #Deep Love #Tough

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Moving On #Growing Up #Memories

Setting is a major aspect in writing all of my books, both in terms of natural and cultural environments.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Book #Writing #Environment

I mean, if the relationship can't survive the long term, why on earth would it be worth my time and energy for the short term?
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Relationship #Mean #Long

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Believe #Thinking #People

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Book #Years #Literature

I consider myself foremost a novelist with the intent of crafting stories that people will remember.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#People #Stories #Novelists

You're going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Inspirational #I Hate You #Judging

I'm not naive, I know that bad things happen, but most people do the right thing most of the time. Most people wake up and they try to do what's right for their relationships, whether it's marriage or family. They try to do what's right for their job. They try to make a better world for those around them, and that's what I want to write about.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Jobs #Writing #People

The saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there's nothing to make it last.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Inspiring #New Year

As a writer, I will tell you that darkness is so easy to make interesting. It is so easy because you're allowed to do anything you want.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Interesting #Darkness #Want

I was in love, and the feeling was even more wonderful than I ever imagined it could be.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Crush #First Love #Feelings

God is the most important thing in our lives. I suppose that's true of everybody's lives, whether or not they want to believe it.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Believe #Important #Want

A guy out there was meant to be the love of your life, your best friend, your soul mate, the one you can tell your dreams to. He'll brush the hair out of your eyes. Send you flowers when you least expect it. He'll stare at you during the movies, even though he paid $8 to see it. He'll call to say goodnight or just cause he's missing you. He'll look in your eyes and tell you, you're the most beautiful girl in the world, and for the first times in your life, you'll believe it.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Boyfriend #Beautiful #Girl

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Fun #Writing #Novelists

Everyone is always going through tough things, the irony in it is that everyone thinks what they're going through is just as hard as what you are. Life isn't about surviving this, it's about understanding this.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Thinking #Understanding #Tough

A book is maybe about 350 pages, and the prose allows for readers to get a glimpse into the internal lives of the characters. A screenplay is 120 pages, and it's all dialogue and action. The pacing of films is different, the structure is often different, and the internal lives of the characters must come across through the acting. Movies are just a different experience than reading - so it just depends on what an individual prefers.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Book #Reading #Character

I have faith that God will show you the answer. But you have to understand that sometimes it takes a while to be able to recognize what God wants you to do. That's how it often is. 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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#God #Voice #Church

Some things definitely work better on film than in books. Introspection is great in books but it doesn't work on film. Anything with high intensity, whether it's a love scene, a car chase, a fight scene - those things work so well on film and oftentimes they can tell a much broader part of the story.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Book #Fighting #Car

How far should a person go in the name of true love?
-- Nicholas Sparks

#True Love #Names #Finding Love

I write the things that I find most attractive in women. I like intelligence, I like passion - give me a little fire, be strong, don't be wishy-washy, do the right thing.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Strong #Writing #Passion

I don't pray because it doesn't work. Prayer doesn't fix anything. Bad things happen anyway.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Prayer #Religion #Praying

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Crush #Dream

When I look in the mirror, I know I’m looking at someone who isn’t sure she deserves to be loved at all.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Mirrors #Looks

I knew even then how rare that kind of love is. Only the luckiest people get to experience it at all.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love Is #People #Kind

There are things that happen that change the course of people's lives, but it's a function of everybody's lives.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#People #Function

What it's like to be a parent: It's one of the hardest things you'll ever do but in exchange it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Parenting #Inspire

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Cutting #Differences #Elements

The scariest thing about distance is that you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget you.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Relationship #Distance

When I am in the process of conceiving a story, I make sure it can be told with words and pictures. The story has to be creative, original and interesting in both areas. Many stories get rejected because they feel derivative.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Interesting #Creative #Derivatives

I think you're intelligent and charming, and that you're a person with a kind heart. I know that when you want to, you can look more beautiful than anyone I've ever met. You're independent, you've got a good sense of humor, and you show surprising patience with children." -Alex
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Beautiful #Children #Heart

I have some art, but I am a hobbyist. I would not consider myself an expert but in the course of writing this novel I became very familiar with the various movements in American Modern Art from 1900 onwards.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Art #Writing #Experts

I finally understood what true love meant...love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Valentines Day #Choices

I want characters to have voices that feel authentic, unique, honest, fresh and original - all at once. Part of that authenticity is evoking genuine emotion across life - the sadness, passion, love, sense of loss, missed opportunities, and confusion even. All of this helps us realize that our choices do impact the lives that we eventually lead.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Character #Sadness #Passion

So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Marriage #Forever

I don't want to be on the phone talking numbers and budget. I want to be creating a world.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Creating #Numbers #Phones

Do you ever sit back and wonder what it all means? Whether this is it or if there's something greater out there? Or if you were meant for something better?
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Mean #Wonder #Something Better

Believe it or not, I don't collaborate with women, though my agent and editor are both females. For the most part, they do little editing on my characters.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Believe #Character #Editing

I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Valentines Day #Dream

Novels are very different than films and I love to see someone else's imagining of my story.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Different #Stories #Film

She was struck by the simple truth that sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people...
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Simple #People #Ordinary

Whenever you're trying to do a film in a genuine historical period, you do have to make sure that you get as much historically accurate as you possibly can because there are thousands of people who are wildly interested in the Civil War. If we get anything wrong, there is no doubt that we're going to hear from them.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#War #People #Historical

The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. Maybe they always have been and will be. Maybe we've lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we've found each other. And maybe each time, we've been forced apart for the same reasons. That means that this goodbye is both a goodbye for the past ten thousand years and a prelude to what will come.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Goodbye #Hurt

I tend to be pretty efficient with my time. I work on a novel for four to five hours a day, and then the rest of my day is spent doing other things, whether it's spending time with my family, or going through and making notes on the script, or working on the marketing. It's just a matter of scheduling.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Marketing #Four #Matter

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Life #Book #Adventure

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Reality #Want #World

We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Lost Love #Taken #People

Whenever I work on a film, I have three rules. Only three and I tell them to every screenwriter. I say let's retain the spirit and the intent of the overall story. Let's make it the best film that we possibly can.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Stories #Three #Spirit

But even though she was attractive, there was something else about her that caught his eye. She was intelligent, he could sense that right away, and confident, too, as if she were able to move through life on her own terms. To him, these were the things that really mattered. Without them, beauty was nothing.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Moving #Eye #Intelligent

You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Life #Notebook #Stay Strong

If you have no conflict, you have no story. That's number one. That's a rule of novels.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Numbers #Stories #Conflict

A living poem" had always been the words that came to mind when he tried to describe her to others.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Inspirational #Women #Mind

There is a fine line I have to walk throughout the writing process in a novel. It is this line between drama and melodrama, and it is this line between evoking genuine emotional power and being manipulative.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Drama #Writing #Emotional

If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Cute #Relationship

I met my wife on Spring break when I was in college. I was at the University of Notre Dame. She was at the University of New Hampshire. I bumped into her in Florida and told her the next day that I was going to marry her and 20 or something years later here we are.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Spring #College #Florida

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
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love You #Moving #Care

Really good original ideas are very hard to come up with. Good ideas - easy. Really good, original ideas - it can take months.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Ideas #Months #Easy

There are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Blow #Destiny #Wind

If I knew where creativity came from, I'd probably be a lot less stressed about coming up with new stories.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Creativity #Stressed #Stories

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Grief #Grieving

I've done a number of films. I've been around this. I think the biggest challenge is just getting the script right, the way that you want the script to be. It's really about capturing the complexity of emotions and creating the kind of characters that people will want to watch every week.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Character #Thinking #Creating

I am here to love you, to hold you in my arms, to protect you.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love You #Arms #Protect

The general rule is that my life is focused on the present, and very little on the past. If anything, I'm a little bit more focused toward the future.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Past #Littles #Life Is

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Good Life #Anger #Christian Inspirational

I write 3-4 days a week, 4-5 hours at a time (with lots of breaks). My goal is 2000 words when I sit down to write and usually, I hit that, though it can take anywhere from 3-7 hours to get there. I usually know the basics of where the story is going, but the specifics just sort of come to me as I write.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Writing #Goal #Stories

In our time together, you claimed a special place in my heart, one I'll carry with me forever and that no one can ever replace.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Heart #Romance #Forever

It doesn't matter to me whether I write in a man's voice or a woman's, or first or third person for that matter. Those choices come down to the story and I just go with it.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Writing #Men #Voice

Don't take my advice. Or anyone's advice. Trust yourself. For good or for bad, happy or unhappy, it's your life, and what you do with it has always been entirely up to you.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Advice #Unhappy #Trust Yourself

In the end, for me, the sole single goal is to write the best novel that I can. Whether or not it gets made or gets purchased.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Writing #Goal #Made

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

#Loving Someone #Giving #Receiving

I'm a novelist at heart. How's that? And that's how I make my living, is I write novels.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Heart #Writing #Novelists

I've come to understand that arguing with [my wife] about it has never solved anything. So instead of denying it, I've learned to take her hands, look her in the eyes, and respond with those three magic words every woman wants to hear: "You're right, sweetheart.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Eye #Hands #Wife

I generally don't involve myself in giving the actors some tips on acting. At the same time, I don't do that with the director.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Giving #Acting #Actors

I knew it wasn't fair, I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't help it. And after a while, the anger I felt just sort of became part of me, like it was the only way I knew how to handle the grief. I didn't like who I'd become, but I was stuck in this horrible cycle of questions and blame.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Grief #Way #Helping

Relationship is about forgiveness and compromise. It is about balance where one person complements each other.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Balance #Compromise #Persons

Working on a novel is very solitary and I get to be the boss. I'm the dictator, so I win every battle. So, in that sense, novels are easier because you don't have to answer to anyone. And then, you go into something like film and there are more cooks in the kitchen, so to speak.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Winning #Boss #Kitchen

love, I've come to understand is more than three words mumbled before bedtime.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Three #Bedtime

You have to find actors who have the ability to display a wide range of emotion effectively. That's so much harder than it seems.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Actors #Emotion #Range

I've come to believe that in everyone's life, there's one undeniable moment of change, a set of circumstances that suddenly alters everything.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Inspirational #Change #Believe

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Stuff #Kind #Macro

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Friendship #Family

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Writing #Romance #Fiction

As the warm air blew in the car, simple snapshots of the life they'd lived together surfaced in his mind; but as always, those images led inexorably to their final day together.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Simple #Air #Car

What I try to do with any of my stories, any of my novels, is make them feel very original.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Trying #Stories #Novel

The key to happiness was achievable dreams.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Dream #Keys #Key To Happiness

I do labor - it's part of the process. Writing is no easier today than it was in the beginning: writing well is very hard to do. Always.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Writing #Today #Process

An ordinary beginning, something that would have been forgotten had it been anyone but her. But as he shook her hand and met those striking emerald eyes, he knew before he'd taken his next breath that she was the one he could spend the rest of his life looking for but never find again. She seemed that good, that perfect, while a summer wind blew through the trees.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Summer #Taken #Eye

I don't get involved in casting, budgets, location or promotion. Just the script. And, of course, the promotional tour. Which is fine with me - I'm a novelist.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Casting #Location #Scripts

I love you now as I write this, and I love you now as you read this
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love You #Writing

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Writing #Hands #White

You gotta know when to be lazy. Done correctly, it's an art form that benefits everyone.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Art #Lazy #Done

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

#Book #Inspire #Books And Movies

And 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. But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Life #Dream #Falling In Love

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

#Sitting #Leisure #Okay

Every great love starts with a great story...
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Love #Great Love #Romance

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Thinking #Next #Months

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Writing #Pages #Lasts

People are self-absorbed. I think that the mass ability of communication now probably allows individuals to meet more self-absorbed individuals. It has certainly changed the way that people meet.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Communication #Thinking #Self

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.
-- Nicholas Sparks

#Couple #Children #Thinking