Sometimes I get asked 'What would be your recipe for a happier life?' And I've always said 'A bit more tolerance from all of us.'
-- J.K. Rowling (CBC)
Interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Co.
Memorable lines
"No one ever called me Joanne when I was young, unless they were angry."
"... there's lots of fun and fantasy in these books, but there are also life lessons in these stories. What did you intend to write when you started?
Rowling: Initially, I intended to write a story. No more or no less than that. I love stories. We need stories, I think.
Every 'message' - and I put that in heavily inverted commas because I don't set out to teach people specific things... I never sit down at the beginning of a novel and think 'What is today's lesson?'
Those lessons, they grow naturally out of the book and I suppose they come naturally from me.
Sometimes I get asked 'What would be your recipe for a happier life?' And I've always said 'A bit more tolerance from all of us.'
One way to learn tolerance is to take the time to really understand other people's motives. Yes, you're right. Harry is often given an erroneous first impression of someone and he has to learn to look beneath the surface. When you look beneath the surface he has sometimes found that he is being fooled by people. And on other occasions he has found very nice surprises.
Interview: J.K. Rowling