He's a man who can make grown men cry (e.g. "The Notebook"). So good news for them and romance-loving theater-goers - Nicholas Sparks has just released "The Choice."

Prior to the Friday release, we caught up with the wildly popular author to chat not just about the movie, but about his personal romantic touches.

ALLISON WALKER: I've always wondered - when you plunk yourself down to write a book, do you already know the beginning and end, or does it just write itself?

NICHOLAS SPARKS: Oh wow. It would be so nice if these novels wrote themselves. No, it's hard work - let me tell ya! At least I struggle with it. I don't know about other writers, but I find the whole thing very hard... You know,  I always do know the beginning and I always do know the end of the story. I also know maybe 4 or 5 of the major twists and turns and a little bit about the characters. But really, that's all I know prior to starting writing.

AW: Between you and me, have you ever told a story that's secretly based on people you've met?

NS: Of course! Many of them. I make no bones about that. For instance, "The Choice," right? The main character, Travis, is in many ways inspired by my brother. My brother was the consummate bachelor for about 10 years and he really knew how to enjoy life and he had no intentions of settling down. I remember watching his life throughout this period because I was married, I had small children, I was changing diapers, getting puked on. I'm like, alright, what's it going to take for his life to be more like mine?

AW: So in "The Choice," we're talking about 2 neighbors in a small coastal town, which a lot of us can relate to here in Central Florida. What are some of the biggest tests they're faced with?

NS: Well, sure. Travis has the test of, well, this isn't something he wants. He's perfectly content in his own life. Why on earth would he want to change his perfectly happy life? Meanwhile, she's entirely different than he is. She's a medical school student, she moves next door, and she's the kind of girl who has her entire life planned out - she's going to get married at "this" age and they're going to have their first child at "this" age and they're going to live in "this" kind of house. She has it all planned out and she even has the guy she is going to be with and she's in love with him. Well, let's just say they become neighbors and sparks fly.

AW: You know, it's funny -a lot of us were just talking about this in the newsroom. We're wondering about the kind of romantic that you are. I imagine you pull out all of the unthinkable stops.

NS: I will be honest, I can be pretty romantic. I've got all the basics down... Flowers and candy and notes and remembering holidays. I tend to be very observant, so if you mention you like a scarf and it's July, I will remember that at Christmas time. Boom, there's the scarf, for instance. However, what I do have that maybe other people don't have is I'm pretty good at writing a love letter.

There's more! You can watch the entire, unedited interview in the VIDEO section up top.