QUOTATIONS - IMPORTANT QUOTES AND ANALYSIS

The following quotations are important at various points of the story (Warner Books, 1996 ):

1. Noah is also left with the belief that miracles, no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can occur without regard to the natural order of things.

(pg. 5; Here Noah prepares us for the final miracle he will experience in his relationship with Allie.)

2. Gus says Allie is the ghost that Noah has been running from.

(pg. 14; This reinforces that Noah has never gotten over Allie.)

3. I wish I could give you what you're looking for, but I don't know what it is. There's a part of you that you keep closed off from everyone, including me. It's as if I'm not the one you're really with. You mind is on someone else.

(pg. 28; These are the words of a waitress who fell in love with Noah, but knew she had no chance to win him.)

4. It's just that sometimes, our future is dictated by what we are, as opposed to what we want.

(pg. 59; These words were spoken by Allie' mother who was trying to explain why she couldn't have Noah.)

5. Noah has fallen in love with the new Allie, not her memory, but then he had never really stopped, and this he realizes, is his destiny.

(pg. 73; This comment reinforces the whole point of the novel – these two were destined for each other.)

6. Artistic . . . There's something almost artistic about him . . . Something natural, as if being on the water is beyond his control, part of a gene passed on to him from some obscure hereditary pool.

(pg. 101; These words are Allie's thoughts as she watches Noah paddle the canoe.)

7. Our souls are connected . . . I know I have spent every life before this one searching for you . . . We will find each other again, and maybe the stars will have changed, and we will not only love each other in that time, but for all the times we've had before.

(pg. 124; Noah told Allie this in his parting note to her the summer they were together.)

8. Follow your heart.

(pg. 139; These are Allie's mother's parting words to her.)

9. Noah thinks that silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is a great paradox.

(pg. 180; Here Noah describes the comfort level he and Allie can attain despite her illness.)

10. . . . My heart had been captured, roped by a southern poet, and I knew inside that it had always been yours. Who was I to question a love that rode on shooting stars and roared like crashing waves? . . . I love you for many things, especially your passions . . . Love and poetry and fatherhood and friendship and beauty and nature . . . I fear the pain I know you will go through . . . So I love you so deeply, so incredibly much, that I will find a way to come back to you despite my disease, I promise you that. And this is where the story comes in. When I am lost and lonely, read this story – just as you told it to the children – and know that in some way, I will realize it's about us. And perhaps, just perhaps, we will find a way to be together again.

(pg. 208; This is Allie's promise to Noah left for him in her final letter.)

11. Oh Noah . . . I've missed you.

(pg. 214; Allie's final words to her love prove that she has kept her promise.)