- 11 hours ago
Nicole sits down with bestselling author Nicholas Sparks to talk about his surprising new collaboration with M. Night Shyamalan, the inspiration behind his upcoming novels, and whether he’s officially joined the Philly sports fandom.
From timeless love stories to thrilling new twists — get the inside scoop straight from the author himself.
From timeless love stories to thrilling new twists — get the inside scoop straight from the author himself.
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00:00hello hey how are you good how are you let me um oh you look so nice i love your background
00:07oh isn't that me yeah that's those are all my books in various languages oh really yeah oh
00:13that's cool did was that your idea or like did somebody in your life say no no it's uh this is
00:20uh i i've got a library in the house and and yeah i've actually got a pretty big library but
00:26what goes in this room uh just my books in foreign languages basically um do you speak any other
00:32languages uh no i do not right i mean uh no no certainly i don't really have a reason to and if
00:40you if you're not speaking it all the time you'll like it you'll you'll you'll lose it and so yeah
00:45no i don't i'm very excited about bad bunny doing the super bowl halftime show so i'm trying to learn
00:50a little bit of spanish before if you were all right well just just listen to despacito a few
00:56times and you'll and you'll have it okay wait really before we get into the important stuff do
01:00you have one of those ladders in your library that goes back and forth i do would you like to see it
01:05yes can we sure okay i'm moving here righty it's just like the movies
01:12yes i i did think a live uh a ladder was uh important and and it is handy when you're you're
01:21trying to get books or place books on the top shelf yeah when it just you being nicholas sparks like
01:27it's if you didn't have the ladder it's like romantic and like literary and it just is chef's kiss
01:33i'm telling you you know if we're in a different spot i've got a desk now that used to be owned
01:39i am i have agatha christie's original writing desk in my home wow where she wrote all of her
01:45novels and how fun is that so i'm working on a novel at that desk so this will be a novel in
01:52which agatha christie and nicholas sparks wrote stuff how fun is that are you into like energy
01:58because i believe that i believe energy is real like i believe like we're just like moon dust and
02:03atoms and neurons and stuff okay no doubt in my mind that like her energy is there
02:09well you know there could be pieces of her dna for all i know right on that desk still after all
02:16this time which is great right a big fan of her work and i think she she might be the best-selling
02:21novelist of all time i mean i'd have to check the guinness book of world records but yeah i'm pretty
02:26sure i've read something like she's sold over a billion copies of her novels which is a lot
02:32and i think it's an important conversation and i'm really excited you know to talk to you because
02:36like you know reading is sexy i keep saying and i love the fact that like tiktok and book talk kind
02:42of has made like reading a thing again and you really kind of have done that for like the millennial
02:47generation like your books which then became movies have like it it embraced a whole generation and like
02:54we gave tickets so obviously we're gonna we're gonna talk about the movie and but you're doing
02:58this like little tour and you're gonna be in philly with m night who's a legend in philly right he
03:02embraced really really well and so we gave tickets away last week on my radio show and it was an you
03:08know a night with you and m night and people were going crazy they were dming me on instagram like how
03:13do i win these tickets and it's like you've done so much for like the book and literary community and
03:19i just think that that's really cool that we are still embracing this and it's like yeah we can watch
03:25movies but like it all starts with books yeah it's funny the the number of people who are actually
03:33readers in the u.s i think it's relatively small it's 15 to 20 percent of people consider themselves
03:38reader and and a chunk of those might only read one or two books a year uh and you know i had five kids
03:45and one of my kids was a reader and she was always reading all the time always had a book still is that
03:53way but the other four you know they read some yeah they don't read nearly as much as she does
04:00and i think that there's just a certain percentage of the world that enjoys the written word of story
04:05i happen to be one of them reading is one of the great pleasures of my life and i there's nothing
04:11there's few things i love more than than finding that diamond in the rough you know where you go into
04:18a bookstore and you browse and you pull one off and the novel is so much better than you expected
04:26it to be there yeah that happens rarely but it's like a treasure hunt and and and that excitement when
04:34you find them i mean it certainly happened you know a dozen times over the years uh just enough
04:40to to keep me wanting to go back to that bookstore and find that next gem a hundred percent and i think
04:46stephen king has that famous quote where it's like you never have to worry about it running out of
04:50batteries you never have to worry about it losing a signal like people don't realize like when you
04:54have a book it's like it's endless entertainment across all genres across all facets and it's like
05:01yeah i i couldn't agree more i i'll add in you know you can also leave it by the pool or by your
05:08your your lounge chair when at the beach when you're on vacation because very few people are going to steal
05:14your book but hey try that with your phone or your ipad well you might not it might not be there when
05:20you get back let me ask you something controversial are audiobooks reading well i don't think they're
05:26reading i certainly think they're listening yeah and and uh but they're not reading reading i think a
05:34little bit more of an active process i think also but i don't think there's a problem with that some
05:39people uh some people enjoy that medium good for them right yeah it's okay uh stories are part i think
05:49of the desire for a good story is just intrinsic within human nature somehow and so whether you get
05:58that by reading a story or making up a story or listening to a story or seeing a story on screen
06:07whether it's television or film yeah yeah okay i i think it just satisfies uh an intrinsic part of
06:14of what's embedded into human nature right yeah our way to help us understand and process the world
06:22and honestly i'm both like i love to read especially like when i'm at the beach when i'm on vacation like
06:28i love it i just was in myrtle beach and went through four books in six days like wow right like but
06:34then when i'm in the car i'm on the radio so i'm in music all the times but i'm in the car sometimes
06:39i'll listen to books you know what i mean so i think i think you can have both yeah absolutely
06:42absolutely and whatever anyone likes i'm okay with right i just think i think stories you know even
06:50people who aren't readers i still think they're drawn to stories right otherwise people wouldn't see
06:56movies or or watch television there'd be no streaming channels totally yeah stories are a way to access
07:02uh elements of our own lives and and and to learn things about ourselves how we relate to a particular
07:11story whatever that is how one views it or or or receives it um tells us a little bit about ourselves
07:18yeah it was funny when we were talking about setting this up they're like how much time do you need
07:22with him i'm like you can't tell somebody who talks for a living how much time do i need with
07:26nicholas sparks i was like i could talk to him for two and a half hours right of course i know
07:32all right so let's get to i do want to tell you a funny story but i want to talk about your stuff
07:38really quick um so obviously you're going to be here you're doing this tour but let's talk about
07:43the new movie with m night and it's kind of a bit of a departure for you because obviously people
07:49know you as romance and m night is known as like suspense and kind of horror and you both had this
07:56brilliant idea and i this is also which i i love like both of you are so successful in your own
08:03world and i love the fact that you were like i love art i love storytelling let's try to do something
08:08together and make it which i think is is so it's it's almost like a life lesson for people it's like
08:15you have these two super successful brilliant writers directors creators and now they're like
08:21let's try to do something different and challenge ourselves and work in each other's world is that
08:26what kind of your thought process was with that a little bit right i mean there was a few thoughts
08:30uh number one i thought there was the potential that could be fun and interesting uh yeah uh and at
08:36the same time you know we as you mentioned we've both been around for three decades we've both been
08:41successful we don't need to work with each other so in our in that early in that early meeting i think
08:46a big part of that early meeting was the two was feeling each other out to see a whether we wanted
08:52to work together be whether we could work together and see perhaps most importantly whether it would be
08:59more trouble than it was worth right because people egos can get involved right especially because
09:05what we both uh had become successful because we follow our own instincts so how is that going to
09:12work and yeah it worked out great because we each had we we had a very simple idea we have this joint
09:20story that that we conceived and were hammered out these elements for and my thought with night was
09:26okay night you go make the film however you want to make it i'm here to cheerlead i'm here to
09:31brainstorm but i'm certainly not here to tell you you have to take my idea or to make demands and he
09:38did exactly the same when it was uh time for the the novel right it's a story we both created
09:44after reading the script i'm like this is a great script it's going to be a wonderful movie i said
09:49it ain't going to work as a novel though it just it's structured wrong you don't have enough of this
09:54i gotta do that you know i just had to to make certain changes to make it work as a novel
10:00and he was okay with all of those things it's it's the if the idea that we conceived is the coin
10:07he stamped one side and i stamped the other and that's what made it such a fun project to work
10:14right in the end night and i become very good friends uh his wife and his his wonderful children
10:21uh and and that's one of the great blessings that that additionally came out of this project was just
10:28did he convert you into a philly sports fan yet oh he is a philly sports fan there is no question
10:36about that sure yeah i got no problem liking the phillies or no question you know the eagles right
10:42hey they're the reigning super bowl champs right let's go let's go we and you'll have that all
10:47throughout this the entirety of this particular football season so yes good when you're when you
10:52come here next week um you'll have to have you've been to philly before though oh yes oh yes okay
10:57so when okay so the idea obviously the movie is called remain the book and the movie is called
11:03remain and have you been into suspense before or like horror before or are you always like a romantic
11:11oh you know it's interesting i read love stories right and uh and yet i try to write stories that will
11:17that that are different that so that each novel is very different than previous my previous work and
11:24so one way to do that is to have a love story element plus something else love story plus danger
11:30you know i've read that i've a love story plus mystery love story plus uh an epic quest love story and an
11:38additional b story this is just love story plus supernatural so it kind of fell into uh the the the realm
11:46the the realm the types of thought process i've had from the very beginning because if you ask me
11:51i think a walk to remember is a horror movie well because the way it made me feel at the end was like
11:59this is there's a lot of funny memes on instagram and tiktok like name your favorite horror movie and
12:04it's like a walk to remember the notebook i'm like no the notebook is a the notebook is a the ending that
12:11you want right like you want to live 200 and like be with the love of your life a walk to remember to
12:18me is the horror movie and i'll tell you a quick story like when we i went to see that in the theater
12:23and i was i was an intern at the radio station at the time and we got to do like the premiere and i am
12:28notorious for crying at movies to the point like there's this crazy story with titanic where i was like
12:35a kid and i was there and like there was these nuns next to me and they were like i couldn't catch my
12:40breath and anyway long story short i was hysterical during a walk to remember and my friend turned to
12:46me and was like get yourself together you're so embarrassing well that you know that that's a
12:53moving story that is uh yeah and i was like landon don't you know the miracles i could still cry just
13:00thinking about it so the miracle was you you have right you have written horror movies thank you
13:07okay well we'll i'll i'll take that in the in in the positive way in which you intended it to be
13:12taken yeah um but the film is coming out in to not till 2026 so we got a minute so what made the two
13:21of you want to do this book tour together ah well it's he's uh well i always go on a book tour yeah
13:27we thought it would be fun in certain places for night to be there so people can uh get information
13:32from the both of us how the story came about what it was like working with each other filming uh novel
13:37writing whatever questions they want to have answered yeah just yeah you're right because
13:41like you became friends so like why not and i do i think a lot of people are so interested in kind
13:47of like this this partnership had were you on set during all this not the not the entirety of the
13:54film i was there i was there a couple of times uh for a few days each and uh but i've seen a lot
14:00of the dailies and you know i was i was involved i've seen all the storyboards that was pretty yeah
14:06i i was involved from afar right because one of the things that i didn't want to do was to interfere
14:14with his filmmaking process because again if it's the coin it was his stamp going to go on one side
14:19and i wanted to make that as smooth for him as possible uh and hopefully i did we'll say that i i think
14:27i did absolutely so you said that you're writing something now like can you can you give us any
14:32like sneak peeks of like what else is on the horizon for you or no it's tight-lipped no no i can tell you
14:38right it's gonna be a love story and uh is it yeah it is and and it's unlike anything i've ever done
14:44before which is exactly the same i would say with every every novel and uh uh it's probably gonna be
14:51set in north carolina again so there we go but other than that totally different than anything
14:56i've done before is there is is there books that take you long or are there ones that you breeze
15:02through or do you always kind of have the same amount of time to do it for a long time that it
15:07was a pretty hectic schedule if you're publishing annually right you had some of that and right because
15:13it's a you're on a book tour right yes the novels take about six months to write uh
15:19and and that's a pretty reasonable schedule another couple of months to edit you know you
15:24promote for a couple of months and you think of a new story for you know a month or two then you're
15:29back at it again and that was my schedule for a long time yeah and now you you kind of could make
15:35your own schedule i'm assuming because you have such success that you're kind of like give me a break
15:40i want to be able to go on vacation yeah a little bit sure uh absolutely but but still you know you
15:46try i i do try to get my novels done within a reasonable period of time even regardless
15:53of what the publication schedule is yeah just because you know i get tired of working on a story
16:00i want to write the next story you know this one you want to fling it to the world and and be done
16:04you know by the time you're i'm finished with a novel i've gone over each sentence 40 or 50 times
16:10and every word is exactly what i want it to be uh and there's a lot of edits and things like that
16:16you you're pretty tired of it it's like it's like a house guest that stays too long after a while and
16:24and you know you're looking at your watch and it's 1 30 and they're still doing this you're like i just
16:30want to go to bed yeah still hanging out that's what a novel becomes by the very end oh that's so good
16:37they're yelling at me to wrap it up but i do want to ask you is writer's block a real thing like have
16:41you ever had that sure yeah it is okay absolutely and different ways to get through it and i've been
16:48fortunate that i've been able to find different ways to eventually move a story forward with that
16:53said sometimes i end up throwing out what i've written i've been halfway into a novel and thrown it
16:58away before um i'm so excited to talk to you thank you so much i'm such a i i like to call myself a
17:05hopeful romantic like i love love um and so i'm not really into like mystery horror supernatural but
17:12i love smart creative people it's like my favorite thing and i love this i love this um partnership
17:19that you guys have and um it's excited i'm excited to see you guys next week and we're excited to have
17:25you in philly go birds you're welcome to root for any of our teams go phillies thank you yeah it's
17:33i don't think that's phillies are i mean they lost last night against the dodgers so
17:37who are your teams do you have teams are you sports guy yeah i uh sure right i'm in north carolina so we
17:44got we got the panthers we got the panthers hornets and you know as far as college you got duke and
17:50chapel hill a lot of fun during college basketball season for instance and yeah i love the olympics yeah
17:56i like sports i was an i was an athlete growing up so uh and that's how i got to college i i i got a track
18:02and field scholarship to notre dame which is how i ended up in college which eventually led to my
18:07writing career which we could have talked about had this come up earlier i know yes we're out of time
18:13we're out of like i said i could talk to you for two and a half hours absolutely um thank you so much
18:19thank you have a wonderful day good luck on everything and uh we'll see you in philly next week
18:24take care okay bye
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