“The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books, but I think that it’s a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.”
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.”
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”
2008 Address to Harvard
As quoted in Harry Potter’s Bookshelf : The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures (2009) by John Granger
“The world is full of wonderful things you haven’t seen yet. Don’t ever give up on the chance of seeing them.”
– Tweet
“I won’t say ‘never,’ but I have no plans to write an eighth book.”
“if there’s ever an eighth, it will be because ten years down the line I had a burning desire to do just one more, but I don’t presently think that will happen, However, I think I might write a kind of Harry Potter Encyclopaedia & give the royalties to charity so ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!”
“I admire the people who go out when people still want more.”
“Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that’s what Voldemort does.”
“We really are talking about someone who is incredibly power hungry. Racist, really. And what do those kinds of people do? They treat human life so lightly. I wanted to be accurate in that sense. My editor was shocked by the way the character was killed, which was very dismissive. That was entirely deliberate.”
“Will there be an eighth novel and will Harry be in it?” There are questions that I simply can’t answer. Fans are very good at that, and I have to be very awake. I think that you want to know but you don’t want to know as well. You would all like me to tell you exactly what happens in books six and seven and then to erase your memories so that you can read them. I know, because that is how I feel about things that I really enjoy. I would kind of like to do it, but at the same time I know that I would ruin it for everyone.”
Question: Is there more to Dudley than meets the eye?
”No. [Laughter]. What you see is what you get. I am happy to say that he is definitely a character without much back story. He is just Dudley. The next book, Half Blood Prince, is the least that you see of the Dursleys. You see them quite briefly. You see them a bit more in the final book, but you don’t get a lot of Dudley in book six—very few lines. I am sorry if there are Dudley fans out there, but I think you need to look at your priorities if it is Dudley that you are looking forward to.”
“The wizards represent all that the true “muggle” most fears: They are plainly outcasts and comfortable with being so. Nothing is more unnerving to the truly conventional than the unashamed misfit!”
Salon (31 March 1999)
“I am not trying to influence anyone into black magic. That is the very last thing I’d want to do.”
“I’ve always read to her, but it’s only very recently that I’ve started reading my books to her. And it was magical. I will never do a more important reading, not if I speak to a stadium full of people.”
J. K. Rowling, on her daughter Jessica (ca. 1999-2000)
“I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”
“I didn’t write with a target audience in mind. What excited me was how much I would enjoy writing about Harry. I never thought about writing for children — children’s books chose me. I think if it is a good book anyone will read it.”
“I’ve never set out to teach anyone anything. It’s been more of an expression of my views and feelings than sitting down and deciding “What is today’s message?” And I do think that, although I never, again, sat down consciously and thought about this, I do think judging, even for my own daughter, that children respond to that than to “thought for the day.”
Interview by Lizo Mzimba (February 2003)
“All I ever wanted was for somebody to publish Harry so I could go to bookshops and see it.”
Quotes by Rowling on herself
“Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. … It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerfulagain. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it’s a healthy feeling. It’s a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different.” (2000)
“I bumped into a woman I hadn’t seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? “You’ve lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!”
“Well,” I said, slightly nonplussed, “the last time you saw me I’d just had a baby.”
What I felt like saying was, “I’ve produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren’t either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?” But no — my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!”
On fame
The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.
I imagined being a famous writer would be like being like Jane Austen. Being able to sit at home in the parsonage and your books would be very famous and occasionally you would correspond with the Prince of Wales’s secretary.
You know I didn’t think they’d rake through my bins, I didn’t expect to be photographed on the beach through long lenses. I never dreamt it would impact my daughter’s life negatively, which at times it has.As quoted in an interview with Jeremy Paxman, (20 June 2003)
View: Biography J.K.Rowling
Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography J.K. Rowling”, Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net – 12th Dec. 2016, Last Updated. 6th November 2017.
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