What Jo says about...
The Harry Potter series

Please note: unless you see quotemarks, these are summaries, and not JKR's words themselves. Please see the linked article for the actual text.

• "The idea that we could have a child who escapes from the confines of the adult world and goes somewhere where he has power, both literally and metaphorically, really appealed to me." [Read the exact quote from The Herald, 1997]
• JKR: "To invent this wizard world, I've learned a ridiculous amount about alchemy. Perhaps much of it I'll never use in the books, but I have to know in detail what magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal logic." [Read the exact quote from The Herald, 1998]
• JKR: "the books do explore the misuse of power, and there's an attempt to make some sense of death" [Read the exact quote from The Herald, 1998]
• JKR: "it's indecent the amount of time I spend thinking up wizarding ways to subvert arrogant Muggles." [Read the exact quote from The Herald, 1998]
• JKR: "I spent a lot of time inventing the rules for the magical world so that I knew the limits of magic. Then I had to invent the different ways wizards could accomplish certain things. Some of the magic in the books is based on what people used to believe really worked, but most of it is my invention." [Read the exact quote from Barnes & Noble #1, 1999]
• It took 5 years to finish the first book and to plot out the remaining 6; Book 4 was plotted when she was pregnant with Jessica. [Read the exact quote from WBUR interview, 1999]
• Some storylines are inspired by folklore, but most of it "comes out of my head." [Read the exact quote from WBUR interview, 1999]
• The idea for the series came to her in 1990 on a train. [Read the exact quote from National Press Club, 1999]
• She doesn’t like to tell people the titles of her books until they are finished; it is a superstition of hers. [Read the exact quote from National Press Club, 1999]
• Why she uses 'J.K.' instead of 'Joanne' for her pen name. [Read the exact quote from National Press Club, 1999]
• Jo says she does a certain amount of research into creatures and magic that people used to believe in, when she is writing about them. About a third of the stuff that crops up people used to genuinely believe in, the rest is made up by Jo. [Read the exact quote from the Diane Rehm Show interview, 1999]
• Dealing with death and facing up to death are "strong central themes" in the books. [Read the exact quote from CBC Hot Type, 2000]
• Fan theories: "children are reading them 12 times, or whatever it might be, and they really are starting to know the way my mind works." But, "[m]ostly what's happened is that people have put together something I've said, something they like to think I said, something someone else said - which is completely false - and drawn completely the wrong conclusions. […] But no one yet has guessed what's going to happen or come anywhere close in fact." [Read the exact quote from the cBBC Newsround interview, 2000]
• JKR: "I love a good whodunnit and my passion is plot construction. Readers loved to be tricked, but not conned," Rowling says, warming to her theme. "The best twist ever in literature is in Jane Austen's Emma. To me she is the target of perfection at which we shoot in vain." [Read the exact quote from Reader's Digest, 2000]
• Jo has a chart with every Hogwarts student that lists their house, magical ability, parentage and allegiances. She will need parentage info later "for the death eaters" [Read the exact quote from "Harry Potter and Me," 2001]
• If all the 15 discarded opening chapters of book1 were put together they would almost give the whole story away. [Read the exact quote from "Harry Potter and Me," 2001]
• JKR: "I’ve used bits of what people used to believe worked magically just to add a certain flavor, but I’ve always twisted them to suit my own ends. I mean, I’ve taken liberties with folklore, um, to suit my plot." [Read the exact quote from "Harry Potter and Me," 2001]
• "I loathe books that have inconsistencies and leave questions unanswered. Loopholes bug the h**l out of me ... so I try to be meticulous and make sure that everything operates according to laws, however odd, so that everyone understands exactly how and why." [Read the exact quote from the Sydney Morning Herald, 2001]
• The Harry books are supposed to be full of surprises, but Jo tries to makes sure things unfold in a realistic way. [Read the exact quote from the Sydney Morning Herald, 2001]
• We won't need prequels by the time she's done with the series. [Read the exact quote from World Book Day, 2004]
• The "crucial and central question" of the series is why both Harry and Voldemort survived the killing curse. [Read the exact quote from World Book Day, 2004]
• JKR: "Most of the spells are invented, but some of them have a basis in what people used to believe worked. We owe a lot of our scientific knowledge to the alchemists!" [Read the exact quote from Amazon.com, not dated]
• There is no character planned called "Icicle.' [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Mark Evans is a nobody — the fact that his surname is the same as Lily's maiden name is a coincidence. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• West Ham is the only soccer club ever mentioned in the books — this is in honour of one her oldest friends, who supports them. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• We should be asking "Why didn't Voldemort die?" Not, "Why did Harry live?" but, "Why didn't Voldemort die?" The killing curse rebounded, so he should have died. Why didn't he? At the end of Goblet of Fire he says that one or more of the steps that he took enabled him to survive. You should be wondering what he did to make sure that he did not die — I will put it that way. I don't think that it is guessable. It may be — someone could guess it — but you should be asking yourself that question, particularly now that you know about the prophesy. [Read the exact quote from Edinburgh Book Festival, 2004]
• The second question we should be asking is "why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry." Dumbledore did not give the real reason. [Read the exact quote from Edinburgh Book Festival, 2004]
• Rita Skeeter was orginally named Bridget. She is morally horrible, but tough and determined. [Read the exact quote from Edinburgh Book Festival, 2004]
• There will be no prequels; we won't need them. [Read the exact quote from Edinburgh Book Festival, 2004]
• No book character has returned from the future. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• In choosing which child to kill (Neville or Harry) Voldemort was "choosing which boy to anoint as the Chosen One." [Read the exact quote form Jo's website]
• Harry's survival through his ordeals "has not depended wholly or even mainly upon his scar." [Read the exact quote form Jo's website]
• As in Shakespeare's Macbeth, the prophecy was a "catalyst for a situation that would never have occurred if it had not been made." JKR appears to say that this is her opinion about prophecies in general. [Read the exact quote form Jo's website]
• JKR: "Prophecies are usually open to many different interpretations. That is both their strength and their weakness." [Read the exact quote form Jo's website]
• Emma, (UK editor) and Arthur (American editor) are the first people she discusses the manuscript with, but only after it is written. [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• JK uses her website to answer questions that she doesn't have room for in the novels; she thinks it will continue after Book 7 comes out. [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• The most likely thing JK would write Potter-wise after Book 7 would be an encyclopedia in which I could have fun with the minor characters and I could give the definitive biography of all the characters. [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• At the moment the last word is still "scar." [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• There are bits of all 6 books that JK would "go back and tighten up." [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• Jo thinks that there are about 3,000 wizards in Britain, though she admits that being specific about numbers is not "how I think." [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• Pensieves "recreate" the entire reality of the memory and are free of any personal interpretations or biases. Even things not initially noticed are recorded. [Read the entire quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• JK intended to draw a parallel to World War II when she chose the date for Grindelwald’s death (1945). [Read the entire quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• Muggle and wizarding wars “feed” each other. [Read the entire quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• At least one of the remaining Horcruxes is pretty easy to guess at if you are a careful reader. [Read the entire quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• Harry is a good role model, but not saintly. He is struggling to do the right thing. [Read the whole quote from ITV, 2005]
• Dumbledore and Flamel "became friends during Dumbledore's lifetime, they hadn't been friends from boyhood." [Read the whole quote from ITV, 2005]
• JK loves writing dialogue, especially between Harry, Ron and Hermione. [Read the whole quote from ITV, 2005]
• At one point there was a blind character named Mopsus who had the power of second sight, but his divination skills were a little too good so he was cut. He had some similarities with Mad-Eye Moody. [Read the whole quote from ITV, 2005]
• Harry has glasses because JK "wanted to read about a hero wearing glasses." [Read the whole quote from ITV, 2005]
• "My editor won’t let any of the characters swear, which is sometimes difficult because Ron is definitely a boy who would swear." [Read the whole quote from ITV, 2005]
• Magic does not make Harry's world significantly better. The relationships he has in the magical world make his world better. "Magic in many ways complicates his life." [Read the whole quote from Time Magazine, 2005]
• "I never think in terms of What am I going to teach them? Or, What would it be good for them to find out here?" [Read the whole quote from Time Magazine, 2005]
• On the topic of her books being free of references to God: "Um. I don't think they're that secular," she says, choosing her words slowly. "But, obviously, Dumbledore is not Jesus." [Read the whole quote from Time Magazine, 2005]
• [The books are a] kind of a litany of bad fathers. That's where evil seems to flourish, in places where people didn't get good fathering." [Read the whole quote from Time Magazine, 2005]
• "In every single book, there's stuff I would go back and rewrite." [Read the whole quote from Time Magazine, 2005]
• Jo has the whole series planned out but she allows herself small digressions. [Read the whole quote from BBC-Radio4, 2005]
• Jo thinks that the Book 1 scene where Voldemort appears in the back of Quirrell's head is "one of the creepiest things I have ever written." [Read the whole quote from R&J, 2006]
• Harry discovers that Muggle world problems take an even more extravagant form in the Wizarding World because everything is exacerbated by magic. "Human nature is human nature, whatever special powers and talents you have." [Read the whole quote from R&J, 2006]
• The Book 1 "Mirror of Erised" chapter is one of Jo's "favourite chapters in the whole series." [Read the whole quote from R&J, 2006]
• Jo still says she might do a kind of encyclopedia of the Wizarding World for charity after Book 7. [Read the whole quote from R&J, 2006]
• Madam Pince was made so nasty because if there had been a nice, friendly librarian half of Jo's plots would have been gone. Jo wanted Hermione to have to go and find the answers herself. [Read the whole quote from RCMH2, 2006]
• MORE: book 1 | book 2 | book 3 | book 4 | book 5 | book 6 | book 7 | after book 7