Interview of J K Rowling, Raincoast Books, Canada, March 2001
The interview was in conjunction with the release of the two Harry Potter schoolbooks that came out that year in aid of Comic Relief in the UK: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
“I got a letter from Richard Curtis who started Comic Relief saying would you consider writing us a short story? And then he cunningly said something like “I’m sure you won’t, we’ll still love your books, even if you don’t but just thought we’d ask”. Which is a very clever way of asking someone to do something.”
Memorable lines
I would most like to have a phoenix if I could choose.
Wizards don't really need to use the Internet but that's something that you'll find out later on in the series. They have a means of finding out what goes on in the outside world that I think is more fun than the Internet. Could anything be more fun than the Internet? Yes!
[What do you most like about Quidditch?] That would probably be the violence.
That's Harry and Ron graffiti-ing the book, as you do to your schoolbooks. You do doodle on them, I always wrote all over mine. Teachers reading this will not be happy that I'm saying it but you do, don't you? So they've just scribbled things on them and said rude things in them, the name of their favourite Quidditch team and stuff in the book.
Quidditch started in the 11th century, at a place called Queerditch Marsh which you probably won't find marked on maps. But obviously that's because wizards have made the place unplottable (which means you can't plot it on a map).
Raincoast Books
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Raincoast interview transcript: Accio Quote
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Tags: creature-induced injuries dangerous excitement Quidditch traditions reading Rowling's writing
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