FAITH Exclusive
best-selling author
Nicholas Sparks
Interview by Alton Pelowski

Nicholas Sparks, 38, has authored several best-selling novels, holds a track record at the University of Notre Dame and is a black-belt in Tae Kwon Do. From his North Carolina home, where he lives with his wife Catherine and five children, he recently spoke with FAITH’s Alton Pelowski about marriage, writing and faith.

FAITH: How important to you is your Catholic faith?
Sparks: My faith is the single most important thing in my life, followed by family, and somewhat later down the list, my career. My faith in God has helped me make it through the challenging moments of my life, and I believe it’s helped me to become the person I am today.

FAITH: How has your faith affected the way you approach your marriage and family?
Sparks: It affects it in every way. With the way I treat my wife, I always try to be honest; I try to have integrity; I try to be patient; I try to be kind. And to get that way, my wife and I will pray together. We read the Bible together. We, of course, go to Sunday Mass together.

And the same thing with my children. We stress the importance of knowing that we’re all children of the Lord, and that you have to love the Lord.

FAITH: How does it affect your work?
Sparks: Well, my faith really defines itself in the characters I tend to put in my novels. I write characters that tend to be open in their Christianity and their love of God. At the same time, I don’t write about perfect Christians, because I haven’t met any yet. My characters have faults, just like anyone else. With that said, I never write about certain topics, just because I just can’t do them. For instance, I can’t write a story about adultery, because I don’t believe in it.

FAITH: Noah and Allie are married nearly 49 years when we meet them in “The Notebook.” And Noah is committed to her through the end, despite her sickness. Is this a statement about the importance of marital fidelity?
Sparks: Absolutely. It’s not only a statement about marital fidelity, but the beauty that marriage offers people if they go into it with the attitude you should. ... If you love someone deeply, you don’t do the big things that are wrong in marriage. You’re not unfaithful, and you’re not abusive. You don’t get addicted to drugs. You don’t go out to hurt your family. You do try to provide the best you can for your family. So, all of that is encompassed in love, because love is more than three simple words mumbled before bedtime. Love is defined in the things we actually do for one another.

FAITH: “The Notebook” seems to talk a lot about love as a feeling or an instinct, yet the characters still must make decisions to stay with one another. Many people today view love as merely a feeling and means of self fulfillment, rather than something that requires sacrifice.
Sparks: Yeah, hence the problem with a lot of marriages today. Marriage and family is a very fulfilling aspect of people’s lives, but as with everything that’s good for you, it entails sacrifice. You can’t be really healthy if you don’t exercise and eat well. You can’t be really strong unless you lift weights. You can’t be a really good parent unless you devote the time necessary to teaching your children about morals and values and honesty and loyalty. What I think is wrong with a lot of marriages is that so many people go into it with a me-centered attitude as opposed to a partner-centered attitude. And if you have two partners who go into it with the latter perspective, you’ll probably have a successful marriage.

FAITH: Do you have a devotion to a particular saint?
Sparks: St. Jude. (Laughs) Look, I’m the king of hopeless causes. For instance, I’m a big Notre Dame football fan. ... My wife would probably say St. Anthony, because she loses things, or St. Christopher because I travel a lot.

FAITH: At the beginning of “The Notebook,” Noah talks about miracles and how there are some things in this world that can’t be explained by science.
Sparks: I think miracles are everywhere, if only you look hard enough to see them.

A movie version of Nicholas Sparks’ first successful novel, “The Notebook,” will be in theaters June 25. “The Notebook” is rated PG-13: parents strongly cautioned.