JK Rowling Charity Reading:
Question & Answer Session Transcript
August 1, 2006
Q: What would Hermione see if she looked into the Mirror of Erised?
JKR: Well (laughter, then applause)...at the moment, as you know, Harry, Ron, and
Hermione have just finished their penultimate year at Hogwarts, and Hermione and Ron
told Harry that they would follow him wherever he goes next, so at the moment, I think
Hermione would be most likely to see the three of them alive and safe and Voldemort
finished. But I think that Hermione would also see herself closely entwined with
another...person.
Q: Who?
JKR: I think you can probably guess who. Thank you; that's a very good question. I've
never been asked that before.
Q: Can Muggles brew potions if they have all of the instructions and they have all of
the ingredients?
JKR: No. I'd have to say no, because there is always, there is a magical component to
making a potion - not just the ingredients, so at some point, you'd have to use a
wand. I've been asked what would happen if a Muggle picked up a magic wand in my
world, and the answer would probably be something accidental, possibly quite violent,
because the wand, in my world, is clearly a vehicle or a vessel of what lies within
the person, and there's a very close relationship, as you know, between the wand that
each wizard uses and themselves, and we'll find more out about that in book seven.
But a Muggle...you need the ability to make these things work properly. But you're
right, and I think that's an interesting point, that potions seems, on the face of it,
to be the most Muggle-friendly subject. But there's normally a point at which you
need to do more than stir.
Q: You said in a previous interview that Snape...
JKR: Snape!
Q: ...uh huh...had a sort of redemptive quality about him, and I was wondering if
there's any chance that Draco Malfoy might redeem himself?
JKR: You girls and Draco Malfoy! You've got to get past this. Well, I think that
almost anyone can redeem themselves. However, in some cases, as we know from
reality...I mean, Voldemort, really, I think, if psychologists were ever to get
Voldemort in a room, pin him down, take the wand away, I think he would be classified
as a psychopath. So there are people, for whom, whatever you're going to call it,
personality disorder or an illness, I don't think redemption is possible. They're
rare.
So I would say my characters, in the main, that there is the possibility of redemption
for all of them. Draco, I think, I was slightly sadistic. Harry's view is that Draco,
even given unlimited time, would not have killed... I assume you've all finished the
book. I'll hear this anguished cry from some child who's five pages from it. Let's
just say, hypothetically, that someone doesn't know, Harry himself believes, and I
believe, that Draco would not have murdered the person. What that means for Draco's
future? We'll have to wait and see.
Q: In the wizarding world, there are many wandmakers, Ollivander being the one we're
most familiar with. How come Ollivander chose the three magical cores for the wands
he makes - phoenix feather, unicorn hair, and dragon heartstring - and how come he
decided that these are the three most powerful cores, opposed to others, such as veela
hair?
JKR: Good question. Well, it is true there are several wandmakers. And in my notes I
have many different cores for wands. Essentially, I decided Ollivander was going to
use my three favorites. So Ollivander has decided that those are the three most
powerful substances. Other wandmakers might choose things that are particular to their
country, because countries, as you know, in my world have their own particular
indigenous magical species, so veela hair is kind of obvious for Fleur's wand.
Q: How do you know when to stop writing and editing?
JKR: How do I know when to stop?
Q: How do you know when to stop?
JKR: Well, I think some of the reviews of Phoenix suggested I didn't know when
to stop. Well, I decided, you know, sixteen years ago where I was going. And I will
say, I'm quite a long way into writing book seven now. And there's a lot still to
explain. I hadn't really realized...There's still a lot to find out, and there's a to
figure out... and I'll probably leave some loose ends hanging that you'll be able to
say, “Oh, well, in book eight, she'll explain why." "You mentioned the toad!"
That's not significant, by the way, just to save myself 500 letters. "You mentioned
the toad!" Yes, but I do know where I'm going, I really do know where I'm going.
I'm really going to miss writing Harry Potter; I will miss it fiendishly. "27? Any
thoughts on 27?" No, I've plotted it out, and I think you'd start to see that I
was running out of plot if I pushed it past this.
Q: As one of the first authors to become famous during the Internet age, how has
online communication and fan interaction influenced your experience as a writer?
JKR: You really have to resist, when you're struggling for ideas, to go onto Amazon
and read your bad reviews. It's kind of masochistic. You scroll down past all the
people who say nice things about you till you meet one "Stop writing." So you
completely have to resist that.
For a long time, I never looked. People used to say to me, "Do you ever look at the
fan sites or see what people have said online?" I was truthful; I said I didn't. Then
one bored afternoon, I Googled Harry Potter. Oh, my God. I had no idea. The
shipping wars? (screams) For people who are over 18 who may not know about this - I
certainly didn't - it's like cyber gang warfare. People who wanted Harry and Hermione
to end up together (screams)...they're still out there! And other people who wanted
Hermione and Ron (screams). And there are very weird couplings as well, but we will
not go anywhere near there.
Audience Member: Harry and Voldemort!
JKR: Yeah, exactly. So I would imagine that Jane Austen would have a little less
feedback on that topic. Overall, I think it's an exciting thing. I think that readers
being able to share cyber book groups. It's an interesting, exciting thing, if used
wisely.
Comment (father): I can remember back in 1998, when my daughter was first learning how to
read and becoming aware of the world around her, that the prevailing cultural
phenomenon sweeping America and captivating its children were the Spice Girls and
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Then Harry Potter came along, and a whole generation,
including my daughter, learned to love reading, learned to love the characters you
created, and learned to love imagination, and learned to appreciate good writing. In
addition to you handing her a tremendous role model in Hermione - intelligence,
studious (screaming), humane, compassionate. So for all the great characters and role
models you've created, and for all the love of reading you've encouraged and inspired,
I and a whole bunch of other parents owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude, so as a
parent, I just wanted to say thank you (massive cheering).
Q (daughter): When you started writing and faced rejection, did you ever think of giving up? And
if you had, what do you think you'd be doing now?
JKR: Well, there was quite a lot of rejection and it was squeezed into a relatively
short period of time. So, I got an agent on my second attempt, which is pretty
amazing, but then it was a couple of years before I actually faced a publisher. Maybe
slightly less, but it was certainly a couple of years before it was accepted and I
started writing it. And during that time, did I ever feel like giving up?
No, truthfully, I didn't, because I really believed in the story, and I really loved
the story. I always know that a good British writer once said, "Writing a novel is a
lot like getting married. You should never commit yourself until you can't believe your luck. And I really couldn't believe my luck having had this idea and I was determined to press on with it till the last publisher had rejected it, which, at one point, looked likely. And, would I have stopped writing? Definitely not. But if I'd
never been published, you know, in the sixteen years between having the idea of Harry and now, I think I probably would have accepted that, after sixteen years...do we know of a writer who made it after sixteen years of rejection? There probably is one, but I think you'd have to have a lot of self belief after sixteen years. I'm sure I would still be writing, but I might have stopped sending the manuscripts at this point. And what would I be doing? I'd be teaching. That's what I'd be doing.
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