Dear John
Quotes from the Book
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've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough..
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.
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.
You are, and always have been, my dream.
You are my best friend as well as my lover, and I do not know which side of you I enjoy the most. I treasure each side, just as I have treasured our life together.
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.
We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has only happened once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory. I'll never forget a single moment of it.
They didn’t agree on much. In fact, they didn’t agree on anything. They fought all the time and challenged each other ever day. But despite their differences, they had one important thing in common. They were crazy about each other.
My daddy said, that the first time you fall in love, it changes you forever and no matter how hard you try, that feeling just never goes away.
You are the answer to every prayer I've offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have.
Every great love starts with a great story...
In time, the hurt began to fade and it was easier to just let it go. At least I thought it was. But in every boy I met in the next few years, I found myself looking for you, and when the feelings got too strong, I'd write you another letter. But I never sent them for fear of what I might find. By then, you'd gone on with your life and I didn't want to think about you loving someone else. I wanted to remember us like we were that summer. I didn't ever want to lose that.
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.
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.
In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry I cry and when you hurt I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods to tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life
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.
If you're a bird... I'm a bird...
She wanted something else, something different, something more. Passion and romance, perhaps, or maybe quiet conversations in candlelit rooms, or perhaps something as simple as not being second.
Noah: "You wanna dance with me?" Allie: "Sure. Now?" Noah: "Mmm Hmm" Allie: "You're not supposed to dance in the street." Noah: "You are supposed to dance in the street." Allie: "Yeah, but we don't have any music." Noah: "Well, we'll make some... Bum bum bum bum bum bum..." Allie: "You're a terrible singer." Noah: "I know." Allie: "And I like this song.
The scariest thing about distance is that you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget you.
Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. That's what it was like for me. I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if oyu planned on fallin gin love with me. But once we met, it was clear that neither of us could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has happened only once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory. I'll never forget a single moment of it.
My Dearest Allie. I couldn't sleep last night because I know that it's over between us. I'm not bitter anymore, because I know that what we had was real. And if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, I'll smile at you with joy and remember how we spent the summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love. The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that's what you've given me. That's what I hope to give to you forever. I love you. I'll be seeing you. Noah
Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is 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?
A living poem" had always been the words that came to mind when he tried to describe her to others.
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.
Poetry, she thought, wasn't written to be analyzed; it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding.
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.
You and I were different. We came from different worlds, and yet you were the one how taught me the value of love. You showed me what it was like to care for another, and I am a better man because of it. I don't want you to ever forget that.
What are we after all our dreams, after all our memories?
No, it's not that. It's not what you're thinking. I was serious when I said 'all of it'. I can remember every moment we were together, and in eachof them there was something wonderful. I can't really pick any one time that meant more than any other. The entire summer was perfect, the kind of summer everyone should have. How could I pick one moment over another? Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. That's what it was like for me. I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you planned on falling in love with me. But once we met, it was clear that neither of us could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has happened only once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory. I'll never forget a single moment of it.
Did you know?
- The Notebook was Nicholas Sparks's debut published novel, written over about six months in 1994.
- Sparks drew inspiration from his wife's grandparents, who had been married for more than 60 years.
- Literary agent Theresa Park discovered the manuscript in her agency's slush pile.
- In October 1995, Park secured a $1 million advance for the book from the Time Warner Book Group.
- The novel reached The New York Times bestseller list in its first week and remained there for many weeks.
- A film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams was released in 2004.
About Nicholas Sparks
More by Nicholas Sparks
All books by Nicholas Sparks →About the book
The Notebook is the 1996 debut novel by American author Nicholas Sparks. Framed as an elderly man reading to a woman in a nursing home, it recounts the love story of Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton, who share a summer romance as young people in the American South but are separated by class differences and family opposition. Years later they reunite in New Bern, North Carolina, and Allie must choose between Noah and her fiance Lon.
At its heart the novel explores enduring love, memory, and devotion in the face of loss. The nursing-home framing gradually reveals the toll of Alzheimer's disease on the couple's later life, tying the youthful romance to a portrait of lifelong commitment. Sparks drew inspiration from his wife's grandparents, who had been married for more than sixty years.
The Notebook was an immediate commercial success, reaching The New York Times bestseller list in its first week and remaining a hardcover bestseller for over a year. It launched Sparks's career as one of the most popular authors of romantic fiction and was adapted into a widely beloved 2004 film, cementing its place as a modern romance classic.
Key characters
- Noah CalhounA lumber mill worker who narrates and lives for his enduring love of Allie
- Allie HamiltonA young heiress torn between Noah and her fiance
- Lon Hammond Jr.Allie's wealthy fiance
- FinNoah's friend
Book details
- First published
- 1996
- Length
- 214 pages
- Reading time
- 3 hours
- Author
- Nicholas Sparks
- Genre
- Fiction
- Goodreads rating
- 4.17 (1.9M ratings) →
Movie & TV adaptations
- IMDb
If you liked this, read…
- 1A Walk to RememberAnother poignant Nicholas Sparks romance about love and loss
- 2Me Before YouAn emotional love story confronting difficult life circumstances
- 3The Time Traveler's WifeA romance built around memory, separation, and enduring devotion
Keep reading
Dear John
The Universe of Us
Memorizing You
Lullabies
Message in a Bottle
The Wedding
Loving Mr. Daniels
The Love That Split the World
Memories
P.S. I Still Love You
Dearest Josephine
Matched
Sweethearts
Love, in English
The Gravity of Us
True Love Story
My Name Is Memory
First Love
Say You Swear
Light in the Shadows
I Wrote This For You
Find You in the Dark
Leo
Juliet Immortal
Present Perfect
A Thousand Pieces of You
Thirst for Salt
Love and Other Words
Just Remember to Breathe
Passion
Bound Together
The History of Love
Never Never: Part Two
The Game Changer
We'll Always Have Summer
People We Meet on Vacation
This Lullaby
The Time Traveler's Wife
When It Rains
Second Chance Boyfriend
Our Chemical Hearts
Every Summer After
Captivated by You
When We Collided
The Way We Fall
The Resurrection of Aubrey Miller
Norwegian Wood
Sweet Thing
The One
The Air He Breathes
Every Day
I Hope You Stay
Happy Place
Butterfly Weeds
Someday
What I Loved
Ten Thousand Skies Above You
The Paris Wife
Our Infinite Fates
Chasing Brooklyn

