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Jo Rowlings interviews 2003
PRNewswire-NEW YORK, 22 June 2003
NEWSWEEK EXCLUSIVE: J.K. Rowling on the New 'Harry Potter'
In Her First North American Print Interview on the New 'Harry Potter,' Rowling Says She's at the Stage When She Can Only See the Faults
In her first North American print interview on her new book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," J.K. Rowling tells Newsweek: "At the moment I'm at the stage when you can only see faults. I rang my sister and said, 'The book's dreadful, it's just dreadful.' She just laughed. I said, 'This is not funny. It is not funny that the book's dreadful.' And she said, 'You've said this on every single book.' I said, 'But this time I really, really mean it. It's just dreadful.' And she said, 'Yep, you said that on every single book.' So she was no help at all." Senior Writer Malcolm Jones sat down with Rowling at her home in Edinburgh last week and profiles her in the June 30 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, June 23).
Rowling on fame: "Only someone whose been as broke as I was could
appreciate how happy I am. I appreciate every day not having to worry
about money ... There is one thing I would avoid: I no longer write in
cafes, I can't do that anymore ... I went to the National Portrait
Gallery's cafe ... Two days later the Edinburgh Evening News printed,
'J.K. Rowling spotted in the National Portrait Gallery Café writing
away. Is this Book 5?" Yes, it was Book 5, but now I can't write there,
you bastards."
On keeping her readers waiting for her latest book: "I wanted to know
what it was like to write without having the pressure of the deadline.
And it was wonderful. I had been writing very intensely, since
'Philosopher's Stone' [the first book]. By 'Goblet,' I was writing 10
hours a day. And that's just getting stupid. Because I have a daughter.
I really wanted to see her before she turned 18 and left home and never
spoke to me."
About the ending of the book: "I know that a certain number of my fans
are going to be pretty upset with me by the end of the book. I really
apologize to them. But it had to be so. And I am sorry because I know
what it's like to lose someone, albeit a fictional person, that you
were quite attached to."
On Harry finally acting like a moody, misunderstood teenager: "I've
said all along that I want Harry to grow up in a realistic way, which
means hormonal impulses, and it means a whole bunch of adolescent angst
and anger, actually ... It's about time he got angry about how life has
dealt him."
On her daughter: "My daughter is 9, and I know that she can cope with
Book 5 because I'm reading it to her at the moment ... She's told me
unequivocally who I'm not to kill. And I've said, 'Well, I already know
who's going to die, so now is not the time to come to me and tell me I
mustn't kill X, Y and Zed, because their fates are now preordained.'
And she doesn't like hearing that at all. Not at all."
*On the merchandising of "Harry Potter": There have been moments, she
admits, "where I regretted selling film rights. Just moments ... The
one thing that I did not have the power to do was say no to
merchandising. And I would have done if I could have. But you have to
be realistic about this. These are very, very expensive films to make.
And no film company in the world is going make them faithfully to the
books and not merchandise because they've got to get their money back
somehow."
