J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life (2007 TV Movie)

J.K. Rowling: Self

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Narrator : How would you like to be remembered?

  J.K. Rowling : As someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.

• J.K. Rowling : [while writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]  Yeah, I've helpfully made the note for myself: "This will need very serious planning."

  [laughs] 

  J.K. Rowling : I don't know when I wrote that. And I was quite right in that.

• J.K. Rowling : [about her meeting with the people of Universal Studios for the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, Florida]  You know what? Sitting in a room full of people who are trying to impress you, that's when I feel I'm at my most fraudulent. 'Cause I feel like I'm about 13, and they're all grown-ups. And I cover that up quite well, but I just - I often think, "Why are you all looking at me for?" 'Cause for years, I was the least important person in the room and I was doodling when I should've been taking minutes and actually writing Harry Potter stories.

• J.K. Rowling : [on returning to her old flat where she wrote Philosopher's Stone]  This is really where I turned my life around. Completely, I mean, my life changed so much in this flat. I feel I really became myself here, in that everything was stripped away. I've made such a mess of things, but that was freeing. So I just thought, "Well, I wanna write. Sit down and write the book. And what's the worst that can happen? It gets turned down by every publisher in Britain, big deal." So, you know, it was really back-to-the-wall time here.

  [later, after seeing the bedroom with Harry Potter books in the bookshelf] 

  J.K. Rowling : And for years now, I felt like if it all disappeared - and some days I do feel like that, "Is it real?" - then this is where I would come back to, you know. This would be my baseline. I'd be back in Leith. And obviously if I had known that ten years - well, what was it? Yeah, ten years, I'd be back here with a film crew and there would be my books in someone else's bookcase in this room... I mean, it's really incredible to me.

• J.K. Rowling : [crying, about her past]  Because it's such a well-worn part of my story now, it's a big yawn to hear how I wrote it as though it was all some sort of publicity stunt I did for a year. But it was my life, and it was very hard. And I don't know that there was gonna be this fairy-tale resolution. Coming back here is just full of ghosts.

• Narrator : What's your favorite virtue?

  J.K. Rowling : Courage.

  Narrator : What vice do you most despise?

  J.K. Rowling : Bigotry.

  Narrator : What are you most willing to forgive?

  J.K. Rowling : Gluttony.

  Narrator : What's your most marked characteristic?

  J.K. Rowling : I'm a trier.

  Narrator : What are you most afraid of?

  J.K. Rowling : Losing someone I love.

  Narrator : What's the quality you most like in a man?

  J.K. Rowling : Morals.

  Narrator : What's the quality you most like in a woman?

  J.K. Rowling : Generosity.

  Narrator : What do you most value about your friends?

  J.K. Rowling : Tolerance.

  Narrator : What's your principle defect?

  J.K. Rowling : Short fuse.

  Narrator : What's your favorite occupation?

  J.K. Rowling : Writing.

  Narrator : What's your dream of happiness?

  J.K. Rowling : Happy family.

• Narrator : When were you happiest?

  J.K. Rowling : Hospital, for the birth of each of my children, and Venice last year with Neil.

  Narrator : What's your biggest regret?

  J.K. Rowling : That I didn't keep my mother on the telephone longer the last time I spoke to her.

  Narrator : What do you still want to achieve?

  J.K. Rowling : I want to get better.

  Narrator : Do you ever feel you just got lucky?

  J.K. Rowling : Having the idea was lucky.

  Narrator : Do you ever feel a fraud?

  J.K. Rowling : Less as I get older, but I have done.

  Narrator : What keeps you going?

  J.K. Rowling : I'm a born trier.

  Narrator : Why do you still write?

  J.K. Rowling : Because I love it and I need it.

  Narrator : How would you like to be remembered?

  J.K. Rowling : As someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.

• J.K. Rowling : [on the way to the launch of the last Harry Potter book]  I also really want a cigarette right now. And when I said that to Neil, he said, "Have you got one?" And I should've done, but then I would've been hooked. Tomorrow, I would've gone out and bought twenty. I can't smoke. With me, it's forty a day or it's nothing.

• Narrator : Did you wear similar clothes?

  J.K. Rowling : Oh, God, yes.

  Dianne Rowling : Different colours, but...

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah, you always had pink. And I always had blue.

  Narrator : 'Cause you were the boy, Jo?

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah.

  Narrator : 'Cause you were the eldest?

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah, and I was supposed to be a boy.

  Dianne Rowling : Simon John.

  J.K. Rowling : I was supposed to be Simon John, I even know who I was supposed to be.

  Narrator : Had they told you?

  J.K. Rowling : Oh, yeah!

  Dianne Rowling : She was a massive disappointment.

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah.

  [laughs] 

  J.K. Rowling : And so now I said, quite hopefully, "And when Di came along, were you disappointed, too?" "No." I said, "Was that because you found out it was quite nice to have a girl?" "No." So then I just went upstairs and wept.

• Narrator : Do you believe in God?

  J.K. Rowling : [with hesitation]  Yes.

  [pause] 

  J.K. Rowling : I do, I do struggle with it. I couldn't pretend that I'm not doubt-ridden about a lot of things and that would be one of them, but I would say yes.

  Narrator : Do you think there's a life beyond this of some kind?

  J.K. Rowling : Yes, I think I do.

• J.K. Rowling : I was very frightened of my father for a very long time. But also tried - well, it's a common combination, isn't it? I also tried desperately to get his approval and make him happy, I suppose. And then there came a point, quite shamingly late in life, where I couldn't do that anymore. And so, I haven't had any contact with my father now for a few years.

• J.K. Rowling : [on her mother's sickness]  I was fifteen when she was diagnosed, but we now know that she was showing signs probably from when I was ten or eleven. She would have odd losses of feeling in limbs, her balance actually was poor for a long time, and it just got worse and worse, and she decided it was time to visit the doctor, but she wasn't expecting to hear anything. A year of tests and there we were. She had a very virulent form of the illness. And at the time, there were no drug treatments at all. They said, "Well, you've got multiple sclerosis. See you."

• J.K. Rowling : Dumbledore's gay. I told a reader that once and I thought she was gonna slap me, but I always saw Dumbledore as gay.

• Narrator : What about the razzmatazz and all that stuff?

  J.K. Rowling : Well, some of it's fun. And some if it's, frankly, horrible. The fun bits are when you get to talk to people who've read your books. That's always great. What I find difficult is the kind of stagy midnight moment business. Because I'm not very good at it. I don't think that makes me a better person because I'm not good at it, I hasten to add. But I'm not good at it. I'm not a natural "ta-da!" kind of person. I get all uptight about having to do that stuff, and I feel like a prat. People definitely expect you to be visibly enjoying yourself. And I think Quentin Crisp said that was the secret to being good on television. "Just look happy to be there." And I haven't always looked happy to be there. In fact, sometimes, I look bloody miserable to be there. And I know that's not televisually good, but I'm... you know. I've got better. I'm having quite a good time here.

• Narrator : Do you worry about people asking you for money all the time?

  J.K. Rowling : No. Honestly. Well, strangers write to me and ask for money. A lot. And sometimes, I've given it. But with people that I know, it does change your relationships. Anyone who says differently is a fool or a liar. It does add a dimension to your relationships. When your status changes initially, I think, but now, as time's gone on, I think my friends have made an adjustment and my experience is that your best friends are happy to take in the spirit that it's given and, you know, we could all pretty much relate to it as much as we did.

  Narrator : Do you worry that people are gonna - that people, at some point, are going to ask you? Is it sort of like a shadow in a conversation? Do you think, "I bet they're gonna ask me for money"?

  J.K. Rowling : No. Definitely not. Definitely not. I don't walk around at all, thinking that everybody wants to get a bit of money from me. "Are you leading up to touching me? Do you want a loan?"

• Narrator : [regarding Rowling's mother]  Was she the first person you saw dead?

  J.K. Rowling : No. Because I didn't see her dead. Which was in deference to my father's wishes. I wanted to see her, and he didn't want me to see her, and I mistakenly, as I look back, I agreed not to. I really *deeply* regret that. I really, really, really wish I'd seen her. It didn't matter what she looked like. It would've made it easier. Because I do believe that the truth, which is another theme in the books, and certainly stems from my own past, I think that the truth is always easier than a lie or an evasion. Easier to deal with. And easier to live with.

• J.K. Rowling : [after finishing writing the book]  You don't know, it might be rubbish. Some people will loathe it. They'll absolutely loathe it. But the thing is, that's as it should be. Because for some people to love it, others must loathe it. That's just in the nature of the plot. Some people won't be happy because what they wanted to happen hasn't happened. And, to an extent, there's so much expectation from the hardcore fans that I'm not sure I could ever match up to it. But I'm - well, I'm actually really, really happy with it. So it's very odd to think that this will be broadcast after loads of people have read it. And people may, right now, be throwing things at the screen. But I am. I'm really happy with it. I like it. And I don't always feel like that.

• Narrator : [about the book she is writing after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]  Political fairy-tale. Well, that's all you're prepared to say?

  J.K. Rowling : I think that's quite a lot, James.

  [laughs] 

• Narrator : According to some reports...

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah.

  Narrator : - you have 570 million pounds. Is this true?

  J.K. Rowling : Those reports are bollocks.

  Narrator : How much do you have?

  J.K. Rowling : Loads, but I'm not telling you. But it's definitely not 570 million.

  Narrator : Why won't you tell me?

  J.K. Rowling : 'Cause I think it's private.

  [laughs] 

  Narrator : But you have lots of millions of pounds?

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah, I do.

• Narrator : You have millions of fans waiting for this book all over the world. How do you deal with that level of expectation?

  J.K. Rowling : Um... It swings between, on this book, thinking, "It's the best I can do. It's how I always planned it to end. So that's gonna have to be good enough." And occasionally, you think, "Well, how can I ever live up to this?"

• J.K. Rowling : I think we all understand what an act of evil is. And Voldemort qualifies extravagantly for acts of evil. He has killed not out of self-defense, not to protect... not for any of the reasons that we might all be able to envisage or most of us could envisage ourselves killing in certain, extreme situations, if people we love our threatened or in war. He's killed cold-bloodedly, sometimes for enjoyment and for his own personal gain. I call that evil. And yes, at the end of the book, you have a clash of two utterly, utterly different - again, for want of a better word - souls. One that has been maimed and has become less than human, because to me, human... includes the capacity to love. And Voldemort has deliberately dehumanized himself. And this very - this flawed, vulnerable, damaged, and yet sill fighting, still loving, still daring to love, and daring to hope soul, which is Harry. And they meet, and they clash and it's what happens when they clash, that gives us our denouement.

• J.K. Rowling : [after revealing the future of her characters after the final Harry Potter book]  I can't help it. You know what it was like? It was like running a race and you get to the finishing line and you're running too fast to stop, so I do know what happens afterwards and I couldn't stop my imagination doing that. So, I know this sounds like an awful lot of detail to go into for your own satisfaction, and not because you're planning to write more books, but that's just how it was. I couldn't - I couldn't stop. I had to know. *I* had to know what happened next.

  Narrator : Well, you always have to know more than you put in.

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah. Yeah, and I carry that on into another generation, but yes, I...

  Narrator : So all of that could be another book.

  J.K. Rowling : Yeah.

  [smiles, pauses, takes this into consideration, starts shaking her head] 

  J.K. Rowling : Don't. Don't. Don't. I know it can't... It can't be. No, I think it would - You've got - No. I think it definitely time to stop. Time to stop now. It gives me a certain satisfaction that to say what I thought happened and to tell other people that because, um... Because I would like my version to be the official version still, even though I've not written it in a book. 'Cause it's my world. But, no, I don't want to write any more Hogwarts books.