 In the scene when Allie is in college, her professor says "Do I  contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself". This is a  quote of Walt Whitman, the poet that wrote the poems Noah was  reading to his father on the porch when Allie gives him her  painting. The professor wrote "Leaves of Grass" on the board during  this scene which is also the title of a book written by Walt  Whitman.