What Jo says about...
Ron Weasley

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

• Are you planning to kill off Ron? JKR: "I can't let on too much." [Read the exact quote from the School Library Journal, 1999]
• "Harry is someone is forced for such a young person to make his own choices. [nice description of how Harry, Hermione and Ron all complement each other]. [Read the exact quote from WBUR interview, 1999]
• One of Harry’s classmates ends up teaching at Hogwarts, and it is not Ron. [Read the exact quote from WBUR interview, 1999]
• The characters she created the very first day were Harry, Ron, Nearly Headless Nick, Hagrid and Peeves; then she developed Hogwarts. Conversations with JK Rowling, p.37-8
• In GoF, Harry, Ron and Hermione have specific issues they need to work through. "For Harry that's facing up to his fame, really facing up to it for the first time because he's been put into this situation where he will, for the first time, really get the weight of outside interest. So that's scary." […] "Ron has to deal with his jealousy - he's made friends with the most famous boy in his year and that's not easy, it's not easy to be in that situation. And Hermione gets a political conscience." [Read the exact quote from the cBBC Newsround interview, 2000]
• People love Ron, for example. Kids think you're going to knock off Ron because he's the best friend.
  JKR: "Kids do, exactly, because they're sharp and they've seen so many films where the hero's best friend gets it. So they think I'm going to make it personal by killing Ron. But maybe that's a double bluff…" (Laughs) [Read the exact quote from CBC Hot Type, 2000]
• JKR: "Mostly they [kids] are really worried about Ron. As if I'm going to kill Harry's best friend. What I find interesting is only once has anyone said to me, "Don't kill Hermione," and that was after a reading when I said no one's ever worried about her... They see her as someone who is not vulnerable, but I see her as someone who does have quite a lot of vulnerability in her personality." [Read the exact quote from Time Magazine, 2000]
• Jo had to remove a chess scene from Book 1 that featured Ron winning by using "a particularly violent bishop." [Read the exact quote from The Herald, 2000]
• Was something going on between Ron and Hermione during the last half of GOF? JKR: "Yes, something's 'going on' ... but Ron doesn't realise it yet ... typical boy" [Read the exact quote from the Yahooligans! chat, 2001]
• Ron’s birthday is the 1st of March. [Read the exact quote from BBC Red Nose Day chat, 2001]
• Ron Weasley is "always there when you need him." Implies that -- like Jo's friend Sean, Ron represents freedom to Harry. [Read the exact quote from "Harry Potter and Me," 2001]
• About what is going to happen in OotP:
  Couric: "Any snogging with Hermione?"
  JKR: (slight frown) "Hermione and Harry! Do you think so?"
  Couric: "No I’m kidding.
  JKR: "Ron and Hermione, I would say, have more potential (or did she say "tension") there" [some words were hard to hear]. [Read the exact quote from the NBC Dateline Show, 2003]
• Ron’s middle name is Bilius! [Read the exact quote from World Book Day, 2004]
• Prefects can take points — Ron got it wrong on OotP. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Does Hermione love Ron or Harry? JKR: "I can't believe that some of you haven't worked this one out yet" [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Ron does not have red hair because he will be unlucky; JKR just likes red hair. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• In the GoF scene where Ron finds out about Leprechaun gold disappearing, JK says that it would not have been as poignant if Harry had noticed it disappear at the World Cup. Ron is poor, so cannot imagine what it must feel like not to notice a pocketful of gold disappearing. She wanted to show, through Ron, how hard it is not to have any money when other people do. [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• Dumbledore is not Ron or Harry "from the future;" no book character has returned from the future. [Added 6 April 2005] [Read the exact quote from Jo's website]
• JK had fun with the romance in Book 6. She hopes that the trends are now entirely clear. "I really enjoyed writing the Ron/Lavender business." Ron needed to "grow up emotionally." [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• Ron's eyes are blue. [Read the entire quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• Ron's Patronus is a Jack Russell terrier. [Read the entire quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• Harry and Ron will never read Hogwarts, a History. [Read the entire quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
• JK loves writing dialogue, especially between Harry, Ron and Hermione. [Read the whole quote from ITV, 2005]
• Ron is a character who would swear, but her editor won't let her use swear words. [Read the whole quote from Owen Jones interview, 2005]
• "Ron's hormones get fuller play in Book 6.... It dawns on Ron that both Hermione and Harry have had some action and he's never got close!" [Read the whole quote from Time Magazine, 2005]
• Hermione would see the trio “alive and unscathed and Voldemort finished” in the Mirror of Erised. She may also see herself in a romantic embrace. [Read the whole quote from RCMH1, 2006]