J. K. Rowling quotes:

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  • People ask me if there are going to be stories of Harry Potter as an adult. Frankly, if I wanted to, I could keep writing stories until Harry is a senior citizen, but I don't know how many people would actually want to read about a 65 year old Harry still at Hogwarts playing bingo with Ron and Hermione.

  • If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

  • I imagined being a famous writer would be like being like Jane Austen.

  • Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.

  • Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

  • Death is just life's next big adventure.

  • Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world.

  • With all of their benefits, and there are many, one of the things I regret about e-books is that they have taken away the necessity of trawling foreign bookshops or the shelves of holiday houses to find something to read. I've come across gems and stinkers that way, and both can be fun.

  • I'm not anti-middle-class in the slightest. Look at me! I am very pro people putting time and money and effort into trying to improve the world.

  • On the subject of literary genres, I've always felt that my response to poetry is inadequate. I'd love to be the kind of person that drifts off into the garden with a slim volume of Elizabethan verse or a sheaf of haikus, but my passion is story.

  • The moment I said I'd finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who'd got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I'd written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

  • To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.

  • I do get recognized, but I must say Edinburgh is a fantastic city to live if you're well-known. There is an innate respect for privacy in Edinburgh people, and I also think they're used to seeing me walking around, so I don't think I'm a very big deal.

  • Humans have a knack for choosing precisely the things that are worst for them.

  • I'm interested in that drive, that rush to judgment, that is so prevalent in our society. We all know that pleasurable rush that comes from condemning, and in the short term it's quite a satisfying thing to do, isn't it?

  • Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.

  • I sometimes have a tendency to walk on the dark side.

  • We're a phenomenally snobby society, and it's such a rich seam. The middle class is so funny: it's the class I know best, and it's the class where you find the most pretension, so that's what makes the middle classes so funny.

  • The thing about the 600 words, I mean some day, you can do a very, very, very hard day's work and not write a word, just revising, or you would scribble a few words.

  • Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

  • The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.

  • Never be ashamed! There's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth bothering with.

  • I think you could ask 10 English people the same question about class and get a very different answer.

  • If you love something - and there are things that I love - you do want more and more and more of it, but that's not the way to produce good work.

  • The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

  • I'm pro Union.

  • If ever I expected to come face to face with an angry Christian fundamentalist, it wasn't in FAO Schwarz.

  • You lose your individuality a huge amount when you have no money, and I certainly had that experience.

  • It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

  • No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn't sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours' writing. Nothing.

  • Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve.

  • You sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve.

  • I think I've really exhausted the magical. It was a lot of fun, but I've put it behind me for the time being.

  • I'm an emotional person.

  • I don't read 'chick lit,' fantasy or science fiction but I'll give any book a chance if it's lying there and I've got half an hour to kill.

  • Of all the subjects on this planet, I think my parents would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

  • I've never managed to keep a journal longer than two weeks.

  • If you love something - and there are things that I love - you do want more and more and more of it, but that's not the way to produce good work. So as an author, I need to write what I need to write.

  • I just hate meetings. Though it's true that once you've made a lot of money, people around you might be full of ideas about ways to make lots more money and might be disappointed that you don't want to seize every opportunity to do so.

  • The first story I finished was when I was six years old.

  • I knew no one who'd ever been in the public eye.

  • I've been writing my entire life, and I'll always write.

  • When people are very damaged, they can often meet the world with a kind of defiance.

  • No story lives unless someone wants to listen. So thank you, all of you.

  • He thought that it was all over, finished, done with. Andrew had never yet had reason to observe the first tiny bubble of fermenting yeast, in which was contained an inevitable, alchemical transformation.

  • Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.After all this time?Always, said Snape.

  • Lookatmehe whispered. The green eyes found the black, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.

  • The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potteror at least, most minds are

  • I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper on death.

  • Would you like me to [kill you] now? asked Snape, his voice heavy with irony. Or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph?

  • Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. Ghosts are transparent.

  • She should've interviewed Snape, said Harry grimly. He'd give her the goods on me any day. Potter has been crossing lines ever since he first arrived at this school

  • Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.Avada Kedavra!

  • Killed? said Hagrid loudly, staring down at Harry. Snape killed? What're yeh on abou', Harry?Dumbledore, said Harry. Snape killedDumbledore.

  • Whoops - My wand is a little over excited!

  • D'you know what that - (he called Snape something that made Hermoine say Ron!) - is making me do? I've got to scrub out the bedpans in the hospital wing. Without magic! He was breathing deeply, his fists clenched.Why couldn't Black have hidden in Snape's office, eh? He could have finished him off for us!

  • I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.

  • I have seen your heart, and it is mine.

  • In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.

  • The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall, screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers, and at their head, the locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, was Kreacher, his bullfrog's voice audible even above this din: "Fight! Fight! Fight for my Master, defender of house-elves! Fight the Dark Lord, in the name of brave Regulus! Fight!

  • Krystal's slow passage up the school had resembled the passage of a goat through the body of a boa constrictor, being highly visible and uncomfortable for both parties concerned.

  • Follow the spiders," said Ron weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve"I'll never forgive Hagrid. We're lucky to be alive." "I bet he thought Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his," said Harry"That's exactly Hagrid's problem!" said Ron, thumping the wall of the cabin"He always thinks monsters aren't as bad as they're made out, and look where it's got him! A cell in Azkaban!

  • How desperate she had been for a storybook ending, and a life to which Gaia would always want to return; because her daughter's departure was hurtling towards Kay like a meteorite, and she foresaw the loss of Gaia as a calamity that would shatter her world.

  • Ginny came in to visit while you were unconscious", he said, after a long pause, and Harry's imagination zoomed into overdrive, rapidly constructing a scene in which Ginny, weeking over his lifeless form, confessed her feelings of deep attraction to him while Ron gave them his blessing...."

  • No," said Hermione shortlyHave either of you seen my copy of Numerology and Gramatica?""Oh, yeah, I borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading," said Ron, but very quietly."

  • Professor, why couldn't we just Apparate directly into your old colleague's house?''Because it would be quite as rude as kicking down the front door,' said Dumbledore. 'Courtesy dictates that we offer fellow wizards the opportunity of denying us entry."

  • Beauty is geometry."

  • Dumbledore was on his feet again, pale as any of the surrounding Inferi, but taller than any too, the fire dancing in his eyes; his wand was raised like a torch and from its tip emanated the flames, like a vast lasso, encircling them all with warmth."

  • But I was willing to embrace mortal life again, before chasing immortality."

  • Every hour that passed added to her grief, because it bore her further away from the living man, and because it was a tiny foretaste of the eternity she would have to spend without him."

  • I see a light in the kitchen. Let us not deprive Molly any longer of the chance to deplore how thin you are."

  • He's not a child!" said Sirius impatiently."He's not an adult either!" said Mrs. Weasley, the color rising in her cheeksHe's not James, Sirius!""I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly," said Sirius coldly."I'm not sure you are!" said Mrs. WeasleySometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"

  • Ginny Weasley, who sat next to Colin Creevey in Charms, was distraught, but Harry felt that Fred and George were going the wrong way about cheering her up. They were taking turns covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statues."

  • I'll join you when Hell freezes over," said NevilleDumbledore's Army!" he shouted, and there was an answering cheer from the crowd, whom Voldemort's Silencing Charms seemed unable to hold."

  • Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says:"My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak!Thank you, Kwikspell!"

  • STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED IN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

  • Just think how many books I could've sold if Harry had been a bit more creative with his wand." -[On the success of 50 Shades of Grey]

  • You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!

  • Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.

  • Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to form of mental agoraphobia and that brings its own terrors. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters, they are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude through our own apathy.

  • And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too,' he added thoughtfully. 'We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?

  • -mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule-breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention-seeking and impertinent -' said Severus. 'You see what you expect to see, Severus.' said Dumbledore.

  • Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely," said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. "But I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low-cut." Ginny glanced round, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again.

  • Harry, I've left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry--" "They won't," said Harry. "That you're safe--" "That'll just depress them." "--and you'll see them next summer." "Do I have to?

  • I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I'm in good company there.

  • Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.

  • I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick.

  • However my parents - both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

  • there is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be

  • You are omniscient as ever, Dumbledore." "Oh, no, merely friendly with the local barmen.

  • Harry had the impression that even the barman was listening in. He was wiping the same glass with the filthy rag; it was becoming steadily dirtier.

  • The barman sidled toward them out of a back room. He was a grump-looking old man with a great deal of a long gray hair and a beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry.

  • I will defend the importance of bedtime stories to my last gasp.

  • I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" Dudley and Piers sniggered. "I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream.

  • In fact, you couldn't give me anything to make me go back to being a teenager. Never. No, I hated it.

  • Poverty is a lot like childbirth - you know it is going to hurt before it happens, but you'll never know how much until you experience it.

  • Anyway, members of the Inquisitorial Squad do have the power to dock points so, Granger, I'll have five from you for being rude about our new Headmistress. Macmillan, five for contradicting me. Five because I don't like you, Potter. Weasley, your shirt's untucked, so I'll have another five for that. Oh yeah, I forgot, you're a Mudblood, Granger, so ten off for that.

  • Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.

  • I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best laid plans.

  • The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

  • This was their first encounter with the fact that a full stomach meant good spirits; an empty one, bickering and gloom.

  • I am not trying to influence anyone into black magic. That is the very last thing I'd want to do.

  • His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, His hair is as dark as a blackboard. I wish he was mine, he's really divine, The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.

  • The internet has been a boon and a curse for teenagers.

  • And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

  • And do I look like the kind of man that can be intimidated?" barked Uncle Vernon. "Well..." said Moody, pushing back his bowler hat to reveal his sinisterly revolving eye. Uncle Vernon lept backward in horror and collided painfully with a luggage trolley. "Yes, I'd have to say you do, Dursley.

  • Braggarts and rogues, dogs and scoundrels, drive them out, Harry Potter, see them off!

  • It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

  • Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.

  • Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.

  • It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

  • I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit.

  • If you're holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time.

  • And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for awhile is just bliss.

  • Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

  • Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.

  • Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.

  • From here on in, Harry, I may be as woefully wrong as Humphrey Belcher who believed the time was ripe for a cheese cauldron.

  • The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.

  • Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon.

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