Author's life
Questions are sorted in chronological order.
Most recent ones are at the bottom.
Question on Fame
Are you recognized now? Do you get stopped for autographs?
-
I am rarely recognized and I am very happy about that,
because I like being an anonymous person! It usually happens
when I'm writing in cafes because the connection between me
and cafes is strongly imprinted in Edinburgh people's minds.
Occasionally I have handed over my credit card and people
have recognized the name, which is a very comfortable level
of recognizability. One shop assistant told me she had taken
the second Harry book to read on her honeymoon! The most
embarrassing occasion was when I took my daughter to see A
Bug's Life with some friends, and a woman with a party of a
dozen little girls asked me if she could take a picture of
me with all her charges.
(Source:
Scholastic
-
00-00-1998
)
Question on When she started writing
Did you always want to be a writer?
-
Yes, ever since the age of 5 or 6, when I wrote my first
"book" -- a story about a rabbit called "Rabbit."
(Source:
Scholastic interview
-
00-00-1998
)
Question on Promotion tours
Of the many things you must have heard people say about the
Harry Potter books, what are some of your favorites?
-
My very favorite was from a 12-year-old Scottish girl who
came to hear me read at the Edinburgh Book Festival. The
event was sold out and the queue for signing at the end of
the reading was very long. When the girl in question finally
reached me, she said, "I didn't WANT there to be so many
people here, because this is MY book!" That is exactly how I
feel about my favorite books... nobody else has a right to
know them, let alone like them!
(Source:
Scholastic interview
-
00-00-1998
)
Question on Fighting in school
Did you ever fight in school?
-
I did once have a fight with the toughest girl in my year,
but I didn't have a choice, she started hitting me and it
was hit back or lie down and play dead. For a few days I was
quite famous because she hadn't managed to flatten me. The
truth was that my locker was right behind me and held me up.
I spent weeks afterwards peering nervously around corners in
case she was waiting to ambush me. I became less quiet as I
got older. For one thing I started wearing contact lenses,
which made me less scared of being hit in the face. I wrote
a lot in my teens, but I never showed any of it to my
friends, except for funny stories that again featured us all
in thinly disguised characters.
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on Other jobs besides writer
From your books it is clear you know your languages. How did
that come about?
-
I went to Exeter University straight after school, where I
studied French. This was a big mistake. I had listened too
hard to my parents, who thought languages would lead to a
great career as a bilingual secretary. Unfortunately I am
one of the most disorganised people in the world and, as I
later proved, the worst secretary ever. All I ever liked
about working in offices was being able to type up stories
on the computer when no-one was looking. I was never paying
much attention in meetings because I was usually scribbling
bits of my latest stories in the margins of the pad, or
choosing excellent names for the characters. This is a
problem when you are supposed to be taking the minutes of
the meeting.
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on School life
Have you ever encountered horrible teachers, like Snape?
-
When I was nine we moved to Tutshill near Chepstow in the
Forest of Dean. We were finally out in the countryside,
which had always been my parents' dream, both being
Londoners, and my sister and I spent most of our times
wandering unsupervised across fields and along the river
Wye. The only fly in the ointment was the fact that I hated
my new school. It was a very small, very old-fashioned place
where the roll-top desks still had ink-wells. My new
teacher, Mrs Morgan, scared the life out of me. She gave me
an arithmetic test on the very first morning and after a
huge effort I managed to get zero out of ten - I had never
done fractions before. So she sat me in the row of desks on
her far right. It took me a few days to realise I was in the
'stupid' row. Mrs Morgan positioned everyone in the class
according to how clever she thought they were; the brightest
sat on her left, and everyone she thought was dim sat on the
right. I was as far right as you could get without sitting
in the playground. By the end of the year, I had been
promoted to second left - but at a cost. Mrs Morgan made me
swap seats with my best friend, so that in one short walk
across the room I became clever but unpopular.
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on When she started writing
How old were you when you started to write, and what was
your first book?
-
I wrote my first finished story when I was about 6. It was
about a rabbit called Rabbit. Very imaginative. I've been
writing ever since.
(Source:
Amazon.co.uk
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on School life
Is it true you were Head Girl, like Lily Potter?
-
I was made Head Girl in my final year, and I can only think
of two things I had to do; one was to show Lady Somebody
around the school fair, and the other was give an assembly
to the whole school. I decided to play them a record to cut
down on the time I had to speak to them. The record was
scratched and played the same line of the song over and over
again until the Deputy Headmistress kicked it.
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on Books before Harry Potter
What was the story Rabbit about?
-
Rabbits loomed large in our early story-telling sessions; we
badly wanted a rabbit. Di can still remember me telling her
a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed
strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the
first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was
about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was
visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss
Bee. And ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have wanted to be
a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid
they'd tell me I didn't have a hope. I've got a real rabbit
now. She is large and black and scratches me ferociously
every time I try and pick her up. Some things are best left
in the imagination.
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on School life
What were you like in school?
-
From Tutshill Primary I went to Wyedean Comprehensive. I
heard the same rumour about Wyedean that Harry hears from
Dudley about Stonewall High. But it wasn't true - at least,
it never happened to me. I was quiet, freckly, short-sighted
and rubbish at sports (I am the only person I know who
managed to break their arm playing netball). My favourite
subject by far was English, but I quite liked languages too.
I used to tell my equally quiet and studious friends long
serial stories at lunch-times. They usually involved us all
doing heroic and daring deeds we certainly wouldn't have
done in real life; we were all too swotty.
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on Being a writer
When did you start writing Harry Potter?
-
When I was twenty six I gave up on offices completely and
went abroad to teach English as a Foreign Language. My
students used to make jokes about my name; it was like being
back in Winterbourne, except that the Portuguese children
said 'Rolling Stone' instead of rolling pin. I loved
teaching English, and as I worked afternoons and evenings, I
had mornings free for writing. This was particularly good
news as I had now started my third novel (the first two had
been abandoned when I realised how very bad they were). The
new book was about a boy who found out he was a wizard and
was sent off to wizard school. When I came back from
Portugal half a suitcase was full of papers covered with
stories about Harry Potter. I came to live in Edinburgh with
my very small daughter, and set myself a deadline; I would
finish the Harry novel before starting work as a French
teacher, and try to get it published.
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on Place of birth
Where were you born?
-
I was born in Chipping Sodbury General Hospital, which I
think is appropriate for someone who collects funny names.
My sister, Di, was born just under two years later, and she
was the person who suffered my first efforts at
story-telling (I was much bigger than her and could hold her
down).
(Source:
Rowling, My life so far
-
00-00-1999
)
Question on Being a single mother
Being a mother often requires a sort of generalist or
Jill-of-all-trades expertise -- part nurse, playmate, chef,
maid, bodyguard -- with endless distractions. It is so
different from writing, where single-minded concentration
and discipline is usually needed. How do you reconcile the
two?
-
I write while my daughter is at school, and don't even try
when she's around -- she's too old for naps now.
(Source:
Salon interview, Margaret Weir
-
31-03-1999
)
Question on Other jobs besides writer
Did your teaching experience help you write for children?
-
I taught for about four years, mainly teenagers. It is my
own memories of childhood that inform my writing, however; I
think I have very vivid recall of what it felt like to be 11
years old. The classics part of my degree at Exeter College
did furnish me with a lot of good names for characters --
not exactly the use my lecturers expected me to put it to,
however.
(Source:
Salon interview, Margaret Weir
-
31-03-1999
)
Question on School life
In your books, Hogwarts School is incredibly fantastic, from
its forbidden forest and Quidditch fields and endless castle
dungeons to its talking portraits and Harry's own snug
four-poster bed. Do you see school as a potential sanctuary
for children?
-
I'm often asked whether I went to boarding school and the
answer is "no." I went to a "comprehensive" -- a state-run
day school. I had no desire whatsoever to go to boarding
school (though if it had been Hogwarts, I would have been
packed in a moment). School can be a sanctuary for children,
but it can also be a scary place; children can be
exceptionally cruel to each other.
(Source:
Salon interview, Margaret Weir
-
31-03-1999
)
Question on Imaginary friends
Did you ever have an imaginary friend?
-
I had loads. In fact, when I was a kid, I pretty much lived
in a fantasy world.
(Source:
Nickelodeon Magazine
-
00-00-2000
)
Question on When she started writing
Did you write stories when you were young?
-
Yes, the earliest was when I was six. It was about a rabbit
called Rabbit who got the measles and was visited by
friends. That was the whole story.
(Source:
Nickelodeon Magazine
-
00-00-2000
)
Question on Canada
Is this your first trip to Canada?
-
It is my first trip to Canada. I've always wanted to come
here. When I was about eight years old, my father was
offered the opportunity to come and work here for a year.
For a moment we thought we really were coming to live in
Canada and we were very excited. But it fell through. We
were very disappointed.
(Source:
CBC's Shelagh Rogers/Lauren McCormick
-
00-00-2000
)
Question on Jessica Rowling
Where does your daughter stay when you're travelling?
-
It depends. Sometimes she comes with me -- this time she's
being looked after by my sister, who's like
"Second-in-Command Mummy."
(Source:
CBC's Shelagh Rogers/Lauren McCormick
-
00-00-2000
)
Question on Pets
Do you have any pets/animals? If so, did any of your ideas
for monsters come from watching them?
-
I have a very violent rabbit. ;-) If I'd known what her
personality was like, I would have called her Fluffy, after
Hagrid's dog!
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on Keeping a journal
Do you now or have you in the past kept a journal? If so, do
you believe that it helps in your writing?
-
I've never managed to keep a journal longer than two weeks.
I get bored with my life. I prefer inventing things.
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on When she started writing
How long have you been writing?
-
As far back as I can remember. The first story I finished
was when I was six years old.
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on Promotion tours
How many countries have you visited since writing Harry
Potter?
-
Um...let me think. Spain, Italy, France, America. That's
all. I will be visiting lots more, but because my daughter's
still so young, I don't like to travel too much. Unless I
can take her with me.
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on Encouragement to write
Was there a particular teacher who encouraged you to write
when you were a child? If there was, how did he or she
encourage or help you?
-
I had some wonderful teachers, but I never confided that I
wanted to be a writer. So, no. Writing for me is a kind of
compulsion, so I don't think anyone could have made me do
it, or prevented me from doing it.
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on Favorite books
What kind of books did you read when you were young?
-
My favorite books when I was younger were by Paul Gallico,
Elizabeth Goodge, and E. Nesbitt.
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on Books before Harry Potter
When you were my age, did you ever write a book? I am in the
fifth grade.
-
Yes, as a matter of fact I did. I wrote a story about seven
cursed diamonds. I thought it was a novel. I think now it
was really a very long short story.
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on Place of birth
Where were you born and what was your childhood like?
-
I was born in a place called Chipping, so perhaps that
explains my love of silly names.
(Source:
Chat session
-
03-02-2000
)
Question on Reception of the books
A lot of American superstitions were just imported whole
from England. Salem gets mentioned in book four. Have you
ever gotten ideas from readers?
-
No, young readers are so generous, they write and tell me
funny words they've made up and say, "Can you use it?" and I
have to write back and say, "No, I can't use it because it's
yours, you use it."
(Source:
Newsweek, Malcolm Jones
-
10-07-2000
)
Question on Getting ideas
But then, there you were, in 1990, on that train stuck
between Manchester and London, staring at a field of cows,
and an image of Harry popped into your mind. That really is
a magical story.
-
It was. It really was. And I had this physical reaction to
it, this huge rush of adrenaline, which is always a sign
that you've had a good idea, when you've a physical
response, this massive rush, and I'd never felt that before.
I'd had ideas I liked, but never quite so powerful. And
Harry came first, in this huge rush. Doesn't know he's a
wizard, how can he not know? And, very bizarrely, he had the
mark on his forehead, but I didn't know why at that point.
It was like research. It didn't feel as if I were entirely
inventing it.
(Source:
Newsweek, Malcolm Jones
-
10-07-2000
)
Question on Help in answering fan mail
Do you actually answer your fan mail?
-
Yeah. I have help now. But letters get--I don't know if I
should actually say this in NEWSWEEK. I have a set of
criteria for letters I want to see personally, so they will
get filtered and they will get handwritten replies. I get
letters from children addressed to Professor Dumbledore, and
it's not a joke, begging to be let into Hogwarts, and some
of them are really sad. Because they want it to be true so
badly they've convinced themselves it's true. So those are
some that get pulled.
(Source:
Newsweek, Malcolm Jones
-
10-07-2000
)
Question on Fame
Has your success placed restrictions on your life? Can you
walk down the street, go shopping?
-
Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's really the exception rather than
the norm that anyone would approach me. I don't think I'm
very recognizable, which I am completely happy to say.
Further, no one has ever been less than completely charming
when they've come up to me. And they tend to come up,
obviously, if they've read the book, or their child has read
the book, to tell me something very nice. There was a phase
when I had journalists at my front door quite a lot, and
that was quite horrible. That was not something I had ever
anticipated happening to me, and it's not pleasant, whoever
you are. But I don't want to whine, because this was my
life's ambition, and I've overshot the mark so hugely.
(Source:
Newsweek, Malcolm Jones
-
10-07-2000
)
Question on Books before Harry Potter
The two books before "Harry Potter"?
-
They were both for adults. I've written almost everything,
except poetry. Well, I've written poetry, but I always knew
it was rubbish. I've tried drama, a few short stories. I
never thought of writing for children, ironically. I always
thought I would write for adults.
(Source:
Newsweek, Malcolm Jones
-
10-07-2000
)
Question on Fame
You seem to have kept your life deliberately low-key. You
haven't bought the five cars or the helicopter.
-
Well, I can't drive, so the five cars would be a problem.
Ditto the helicopter. I don't want anyone thinking I'm a
puritan. I enjoy spending money. But the main difference
between where I was five years ago and now is the absence of
worry. I honestly believe that the only people who will
really appreciate that are people who have been very, very
broke. If you've never been there, you'll assume the great
thing about having money is that now I can get the
racehorses or worm my way into these nightclubs. But no,
what I'm grateful for every day is that I'm not worried
about money.
(Source:
Newsweek, Malcolm Jones
-
10-07-2000
)
Question on Jessica Rowling
Your daughter is now 6. Have you started reading the books
to her yet?
-
I had told her, "Not until you're 7," because I think a
bright 6-year-old can definitely manage it in terms of
language, but in terms of themes, things get increasingly
scary and dark, and some 6-year-olds are going to be
disturbed by that. So for my own daughter, I said, "We're
going to wait till you're 7." But then she went to school,
and she got completely mobbed. These older children were
just talking to her endlessly about Quidditch and stuff, and
she didn't have a clue, and I thought it was unfair to keep
her excluded from that, so we started reading them.
(Source:
Newsweek, Malcolm Jones
-
10-07-2000
)
Question on Book The goblet of fire
Civil rights becomes a theme in Goblet of Fire. It shows up
in Hermione in relation to the rights of elves.
-
Yeah, that was fairly autobiographical. My sister and I were
that kind of teenager. We thought, I'm the only one who
really feels these injustices. No one else understands the
way I feel. I think a lot of teenagers go through that. It's
fun to write, because Hermione with the best of intentions
becomes quite self-righteous. My heart is entirely with her
as she goes through this. She develops her political
conscience. My heart is completely with her. But my brain
tells me, which is a growing-up thing, that in fact she
blunders towards the very people she's trying to help. She
offends them. She thinks it's so easy. It's part of what I
was saying before about the growing process, of realizing
you don't have quite as much power as you think you might ha
ve and having to accept that. Then you learn that it's hard
work to change things and that it doesn't happen overnight.
Hermione thinks she's going to lead them to glorious
rebellion in one afternoon and then finds out the reality is
quite different, but that was fun to write.
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Fame
People always ask does fame change you? Do you guard
yourself against change? As you say, you still want to be a
single mom, but how can you do it now when everybody knows
you?
-
Actually, I'm not a very recognizable person. I have no
problem at all walking anywhere or doing normal stuff and
people don't recognize me a lot, at all. On the rare
occasion when I'm recognized, people are extremely nice.
I've never once had someone march up to me in public and be
unpleasant to me, quite the reverse. So it's entirely
possible for me to lead a very normal life. And please, God,
may it always remain so. Because you know, I really wouldn't
like the reverse. I would hate it, in fact.
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Myth of writing on napkins
There is the myth that you are the welfare mom living in an
unheated apartment in Edinburgh You're scratching out Harry
Potter for two hours a day.
-
On napkins allegedly. I had an American journalist say to
me, "Is it true you wrote the whole of the first novel on
napkins?" I was tempted to say, "On teabags, I used to save
them". Like most of what appears in the press, there is an
element of truth and there is an element of huge
exaggeration.
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Promotion tours
There's a legend now that you're a recluse -- the press has
gone to your head and now you're saying, "no more
interviews".
-
It doesn't annoy me. It makes me laugh, it really makes me
laugh. It makes friends of mine laugh. I'm not reclusive.
There are two reasons why I haven't done a lot of interviews
recently. One is, I wanted to be working. An interview
knocks out half a work day for me and I was working 10-hour
days on this book. I could not afford the time. I would
rather be writing the book. And the other thing, which
people tend to forget, is I'm still a single parent. The
expectation seems to be that once you've made some money,
you will hand over your child to a battalion of nannies and
then you'll go off and do what you want to do. Well, the
fact is that I want to bring up my daughter and that means I
want to spend time with my daughter. There's no way I'm
going to be able to do that if I give promotional tours to
every country that publishes me. So it's for very prosaic
reasons that I've been keeping a relatively low-profile
recently.
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Place to write
There's the famous line that you write in cafes. Can you
still write in cafes?
-
Yeah. No one bugs me. No one says, "Can I have your
autograph? Are you in the middle of a great sentence?".
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Myth of living without heat
Were you living in an unheated apartment?
-
No. We had heat. Yes, we had heat. We had mice as well; for
six months I lived exclusively on welfare. That was
horrible. I got myself a part-time clerical secretary job. I
mean really part-time, like a couple of hours a week. But at
that point the law was you could only earn up to 15 pounds a
week in excess of your benefit, which doesn't make you a
great deal richer; Then I went back to college to get a
teaching qualification, which meant I could teach French in
Scotland. We were still broke, but we were not fully living
on the dole because I had a grant. And then thereafter,
although I was partly on benefits for a while again, because
I didn't have a full-time teaching job, we never were as
broke as we had been for certainly the first 18 months in
Edinburgh.
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Being a single mother
Why did you decide to write during that period? Most single
mothers who are broke and have got a kid, they just want to
make money. They forget their ambition to write, forget
their dream. They have to be a little more practical.
-
Well, I felt guilty about continuing to write, actually,
very guilty. I thought, maybe I should just relocate. Maybe
I should just come back down to London, where I had lived
before, and get a full-time teaching job down there and give
up this. I wondered, was I chasing rainbows and sacrificing
my daughter's -- not well-being because she was a very happy
little girl. But maybe she could have had more toys.
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Other jobs besides writer
You used to work for Amnesty International?
-
I did, yes. I was a research assistant. My field was human
rights abuses in Francophone Africa. It made me very
fascinating at dinner parties. I knew everything about the
political situation in Togo.
(Source:
CBC's Evan Solomon
-
13-07-2000
)
Question on Library use
Did you use the library a lot as a child?
-
Yes, I loved the library, though I was very bad at returning
books on time. I once ran up a bill at university of over
fifty pounds in overdue fines, which was a lot of money to a
struggling student. (It didn't stop me doing it again
though!)
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on Books before Harry Potter
Did you write another book before writing the Harry Potter
series?
-
Yes, I wrote (and almost finished) two novels for adults and
a lot of short stories. I never finished the first two books
because I realised in time that they were...very bad.
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on When she started writing
We're doing a lot of writing at our school. At what age did
you start writing, and did you love to write as a child?
-
Yes, I loved writing as a child. I wrote my first "book"
when I was six years old about a rabbit, called "Rabbit."
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on Hogwarts
Were you ever involved in a school like Harry Potter's
school?
-
No, I wish I had been! :-)
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on When she started writing
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on Subjects she taught
What grade and subject(s) did you teach?
-
French, but it should have been English. I don't know why I
did French at university, except that my parents wanted me
to. So learn from my mistake and do what you want, not what
your parents want!
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on Favorite pastime
When you are not writing or reading, what things do you
enjoy in your free time?
-
Let's see.....when I'm not reading, writing or spending time
with my daughter, there isn't much time left over, but I
like travelling most.
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on Magic
When you were a little girl, did you dream or ever think of
Harry Potter or someone like him?
-
Not really, though some of the fantasies I had as a child
(like flying) are in the books.
(Source:
Chat session
-
16-10-2000
)
Question on Fame
Is it hard being famous?
-
Sometimes it's wonderful, like now, when I get to meet lots
of readers. Other times it's hard, when, for instance,
journalists come banging on my front door, especially when
I'm cooking.
(Source:
AOL Chat hosted by Jesse Kornbluth
-
19-10-2000
)
Question on Fame
How do you deal with sudden fame?
-
I'm still learning, I definitely wouldn't say that I'm on
top of it. I wouldn't. It comes in waves, I'd say for the
first two years that I was in the paper I didn't call myself
famous. For the first two years I think I was in denial,
because I kept thinking: It'll go away. And around the third
book, Prisoner of Azkaban, I had toa accept it wasn't going
away anytime soon and that is probably a healthier place to
be. At some point it will go away, that is the nature of the
game, and I truely believe I will be happy. And I will have
fond memories of the time when I was famous. When I am
ninety I will say "Harry Potter was once very big, you
know!" but in the short term when I get some peace back it
would be lovely. People ask me can you walk down the streets
unmolested? It's easy, in Edinbrough it's the exception
rather than the rule that anyone would come up to me. So I
think that Edinbrough people are really cool and pretend not
to notice me, or they genuinely don't notice me, and I think
probably the latter. Compared to an actress or a politician
I really get nothing, only to me it was a big shock, because
I didn't expect to get anything at all.
(Source:
Vancouver writers' festival
-
25-10-2000
)
Question on Character Harry Potter
What kind of kid were you? Where you shy?
-
Short, squad, very thick national health glasses. That's why
Harry wears glasses. I was was a mixture of insecure and
bossy. Very bossy to my sister, very shy around strangers.
Terrible at sports. That whole thing about Harry flying so
well is probably total wish fulfilment. I was very
uncoordinated. Never happier than when I was reading or
writing. Wanted to be a ballerina at one point, which was
hysterical because I was virtually spherical.
(Source:
Vancouver writers' festival
-
25-10-2000
)
Question on Promotion tours
Why don't you do book signings at the press conference? It's
small, not like the SkyDome.
-
I have signed some places I have been, but as anyone who is
in my position will know it's a bottomless pit. Sometimes
you start signing and you won't finish. I signed thousands
of children and I never once had an obnoxious child, I never
once had a child throw a tantrum, I never had a child ask
for more than I can give. But adults, believe me. Last tour
in the UK I finally lost my temper; and I have a fairly long
fuse for my readers. But half way down a queue of about a
thousand people, I had 500 children waiting and I had to
catch a train to see my daughter, and half way down the line
there was this guy standing there with all the Harry Potter
parafinalia he could get his hands on and he wanted them all
personalized, and I said: If I do this for you, about 12
children at the end of this line won't get their books
signed. And he argued and I lost my temper. I thought, if
children can stand in a queue for four hours and I never had
a rude child (which to me is incredible), never before did I
have a child I had anything but affection for out of
thousands, and then there's this guy... E-bay explains a lot
of this.
(Source:
Vancouver writers' festival
-
25-10-2000
)
Question on Being rich
And what about the money? A lot of people when they suddenly
make a lot of money, feel guilty about it. Do you feel
guilt?
-
Yes I do feel guilty about it. Definitely I feel guilty.
When it first happened I didn't immediately become very
rich. The biggest jump for me was the American advance which
was enough for me to buy a house, not outright, but you know
we'd been renting until then. And I didn't feel guilty, I
felt scared at that point. Because I thought I mustn't blow
this: I've got some money, I mustn't do anything stupid with
it. And then yeah, yeah, I felt guilty. Yeah I did. I mean
at least I could see cause and effect. I knew I had worked
quite hard for quite a long time. Of course the rewards were
completely disproportionate but I could see how I got there
so that made it easier to rationalise.
(Source:
Newsnight interview, Jeremy Paxton
-
19-06-2003
)
Question on Being rich
Do you even know, when it gets to the level you're at. Do
you even know what you are earning?
-
No. I met my accountant recently and I said "They say in the
rich list that I am richer than the Queen, so that means
you've embezzled quite a lot of money." I mean I do know
what ball park I've got. I mean I'm not that clueless. And I
certainly have not got 280m.
(Source:
Newsnight interview, Jeremy Paxton
-
19-06-2003
)
Question on Fame
Do you think success has changed you?
-
Yes. I don't feel like quite such a waste of space anymore.
I totally felt a waste of space. I was lousy. Yeah I did,
yeah. And now I feel that, it turns out there was one thing
I was good at, and I'd always expected I could tell a story,
and I suppose it's rather sad that I needed confirmation by
being published.
(Source:
Newsnight interview, Jeremy Paxton
-
19-06-2003
)
Question on Fame
Has it come at a price this success and fame?
-
The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be
famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous. You know, my
fantasy of being a famous writer, and again there's a slight
disconnect with reality which happens a lot with me. I
imagined being a famous writer would be like being like Jane
Austen. Being able to sit at home in the parsonage and your
books would be very famous and occasionally you would
correspond with the Prince of Wales' secretary. You know I
didn't think they'd rake through my bins, I didn't expect to
be photographed on the beach through long lenses. I never
dreamt it would impact my daughter's life negatively, which
at times it has. It would be churlish to say there's nothing
good about being famous; to have a total stranger walk up to
you as you're walking around Safeways, and say a number of
nice things that they might say about your work... I mean of
course you walk on with a bit more spring in your step.
That's a very, very nice thing to happen. I just wish they
wouldn't approach me when I'm buying you know. Items of a
questionable nature. Always, always. Never when you're in
the fresh fruit and veg section. Never.
(Source:
Newsnight interview, Jeremy Paxton
-
19-06-2003
)
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