"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."

"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."

"He liked her, it was as simple as that."

"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."

"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."

"People didn't change. they liked what they liked even if they didn't understand why."

"If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been."

"Every now and then, I'd meet a guy and think that we were getting along great, and suddenly I'd stop hearing from him. Not only did he stop calling, but if I happened to bump into him sometime later he always acted like I had the plague. I didn't understand it. I still don't. And it bothered me. It hurt me. With time, it got harder and harder to keep blaming the guys, and I eventually came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with me. That maybe I was simply meant to live my life alone."

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

"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?"

"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."

"If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for."

"That's why I loved being with you. We could do the simplest things, like toss starfish into the ocean and share a burger and talk and even then I knew that I was fortunate. Because you were the first guy who wasn't constantly trying to impress me. You accepted who you were, but more than that, you accepted me for me. And nothing else mattered-- not my family or your family or anyone else in the world. It was just us."

"She looked exactly like an angel. I know my jaw dropped a little, and I just stood there looking at her for what seemed like a long time, shocked into silence, until I suddenly remembered that I had a line I had to deliver. I took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. "You're beautiful," I finally said to her, and I think everyone in the whole auditorium, from the blue-haired ladies in the front to my friends in the back row, knew that I actually meant it. I'd nailed that line for the very first time."

"The world is a better place when you smile."

"Do you ever wonder why things have to turn out the way they do?"

"God, with a wisdom I can't claim to understand, called you home a long time ago, and the tears I shed that night have never seemed to dry."

"Poetry, she thought, wasn't written to be analyzed; it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding."

"Every great love starts with a great story..."

"I been watchin' you, workin day and night, slavin so hard you barely have time to catch your breath. People do that for three reasons. Either they crazy, or stupid, or tryin' to forget."

"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."

"In the end you should always do the right thing even if it's hard."

"Deep in her heart, she wasn't sure she deserved to be happy, nor did she believe that she was worthy of someone who seemed...normal."

"I mean talk. 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, and even when you're questioning why terrible things have to happen. So I talk withhim."

"It was their secret, a secret meant for just the two of them, and she'd never been able to imagine how it would sound coming from someone else. But, somehow, Logan made it sound just right."

"That was the dirty secret associated with her past. Not that she'd been abused but that somehow she felt that she deserved it because she'd let it happen. Even now, it shamed her, and there were times when she felt hideously ugly, as though the scars that had been left behind were visible to everyone."

"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."

"I came to the conclusion that unrealized hopes, even small ones, were always wrenching."

"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."

"You know how it is. You feel a little different because other people have two parents, even if they're divorced. It's like you grow up knowing that you're missing something important that everyone else has, but you don't know exactly what it is. I remember hearing my friends talking about how their fathers wouldn't let them stay out late or didn't like their boyfriends. It used to make me so angry because they didn't even realize what they had. Do you know what I mean?"

"What's your heart telling you to do?I don't know.'Maybe, you're trying too hard to hear it."

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

"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."

"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."

"And I'd be willing to bet that you were great at it, if only because you have to love something before you can hate it."

"Marriage is a partnership, not a democracy."

"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 past was gone and the future had yet to unfold, and he knew he should focus his life on the present yet his day-to-day existence suddenly struck him as endless and unbearable."

"Logan stopped and gazed skyward as the kite began to soar above them, and when he clapped his hands at Ben's obvious joy, she was strucked by the simple truth that sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people."

"When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence."

"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."

"Part of me aches at the thought of her being so close yet so untouchable."

"Relationship is about forgiveness and compromise. It is about balance where one person complements each other."

"Every couple has ups and downs, every couple argues, and that's the thing-you're a couple, and couples can't function without trust."

"Does trust have to be earned. Or is it simply a matter of faith?"

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

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

"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 never stopped loving you, Ronnie. And I never stopped thinking about you. Even if summers do come to an end."

"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."