The author in her own words

Heritage

Questions are sorted in chronological order. Most recent ones are at the bottom.

Question on Character Muggles

How do you come up with all the unique names, places and things that help make the Harry Potter series so intriguing?

Many of the names are invented, for example Quidditch and Muggle. I also collect unusual names, and I take them from all sorts of different places. Hedwig was a saint, Dumbledore is an old English word for bumble bee and Snape is the name of a place in England.

(Source: Scholastic interview - 00-00-1998 )

Question on Character Severus Snape

Are any of the characters in the books based on real people?

Tricky question! The answer is yes, and no. I have to confess that Hermione Granger is a little bit like I was at her age, though I was neither as clever or as annoying (I hope!). Ron is a little bit like my oldest friend and Professor Snape is a lot like one of my old teachers, but I'm not saying which one.

(Source: UKOLN - 00-00-1999 )

Question on Book The philosopher's stone

Are any of the stories based on your life, or on people you know?

I haven't consciously based anything in the Harry books on my life, but of course that doesn't mean your own feelings don't creep in. When I reread chapter 12 of the first book, The Mirror of Erised, I saw that I had given Harry lots of my own feelings about my own mother's death, though I hadn't been aware of that as I had been writing.

(Source: Amazon.co.uk - 00-00-1999 )

Question on Getting ideas

Are your characters based on people you know?

Some of them are, but I have to be extremely careful what I say about this. Mostly, real people inspire a character, but once they are inside your head they start turning into something quite different. Professor Snape and Gilderoy Lockhart both started as exaggerated versions of people I've met, but became rather different once I got them on the page. Hermione is a bit like me when I was 11, though much cleverer.

(Source: Amazon.co.uk - 00-00-1999 )

Question on Being a writer

How do you come up with the names of your characters?

I invented some of the names in the Harry books, but I also collect strange names. I've gotten them from medieval saints, maps, dictionaries, plants, war memorials, and people I've met!

(Source: Amazon.co.uk - 00-00-1999 )

Question on Quidditch

Where did the idea for Quidditch come from?

I invented Quidditch while spending the night in a very small room in the Bournville Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester. I wanted a sport for wizards, and I'd always wanted to see a game where there was more than one ball in play at the same time. The idea just amused me. The Muggle sport it most resembles is basketball, which is probably the sport I enjoy watching most. I had a lot of fun making up the rules and I've still got the notebook I did it in, complete with diagrams, and all the names for the balls I tried before I settled on Snitch, Bludgers, and Quaffle.

(Source: Amazon.co.uk - 00-00-1999 )

Question on Getting ideas

Where do you get the names from?

I collect unusual names from all sorts of different places. 'Dumbledore' is an Old English word meaning bumble bee, and 'Hedwig' as a medieval saint. I've even used street names for surnames. Some words I made up, like 'Malfoy' and Quidditch'.

(Source: UKOLN - 00-00-1999 )

Question on Character Harry Potter

Who were the Potters?

We moved house twice when I was growing up. The first move was from Yate (just outside Bristol) to Winterbourne (on the other side of Bristol). A gang of children including myself and my sister used to play together up and down our street in Winterbourne. Two of the gang members were a brother and sister whose surname was Potter. I always liked the name, but then I was always keener on my friends' surnames than my own ('Rowling' is pronounced like 'rolling', which used to lead to annoying children's jokes about rolling pins).

(Source: Rowling, My life so far - 00-00-1999 )

Question on Being a single mother

Did any characters or scenes in "Harry Potter" stem from your experience as a single mother?

So much of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was written and planned before I found myself a single mother that I don't think my experiences at that time directly influenced the plot or characters. I think the only event in my own life that changed the direction of "Harry Potter" was the death of my mother. I only fully realized upon re-reading the book how many of my own feelings about losing my mother I had given Harry.

(Source: Salon interview, Margaret Weir - 31-03-1999 )

Question on Magic

Did you invent the spells that the wizards cast in your books?

Some of them are based on what people once believed, but I made up most of them.

(Source: Nickelodeon Magazine - 00-00-2000 )

Question on Character owls

How did you come up with all the unusual names in your books?

I collect odd names. I look at maps and names of saints. Hedwig, the mail-carrying owl in the book, is a German saint. I also invent a lot of names. Quidditch is an invented name.

(Source: Nickelodeon Magazine - 00-00-2000 )

Question on Character Hermione Granger

Is that brainy girl Hermoine based on you?

She's a caricature of me -a real exaggeration- because I was never that clever, and Hermoine is a borderline genius. I don't think I was quite that annoying, but when I was eleven I was very insecure. I covered it up by studying and getting good grades. By twelve I loosened up. Hermoine is going to loosen up too.

(Source: Nickelodeon Magazine - 00-00-2000 )

Question on Character Ron Weasley

You used to teach French to teenagers. Did you base any of your characters on kids you taught?

No. All of the characters are based on people I remember from my childhood. Ron is based on one of my oldest friends. I was very nervous about giving him the finished book. I thought that if he didn't like the character, it would be terrible. When he read the book he said, "Oh, he's allright. He's quite cool." So that was lucky.

(Source: Nickelodeon Magazine - 00-00-2000 )

Question on Jessica Rowling

Are any of your female characters, like Hermione, modeled after your own daughter?

No, if Hermione was based on anyone, she was based on me when I was younger. But my daughter is turning out to be a bit like me, so she is a bit like Hermione. :-)

(Source: Chat session - 03-02-2000 )

Question on Character Harry Potter

Did you ever meet a boy like Harry?

I probably met a boy like Harry, since I've been meeting readers of the Harry books. But he wasn't based on anyone real.

(Source: Chat session - 03-02-2000 )

Question on Character Gilderoy Lockhart

Do you take real people you know and put them in your books?

The closest I've come to putting a real person in my books is with Gilderoy Lockhart, who is an exaggeration of someone I once knew. John Weasley is a little bit like my oldest friend, a man I was at school with, whose name is Sean. But neither of them are accurate portraits.

(Source: Chat session - 03-02-2000 )

Question on Character Harry Potter

How did you come up with Harry Potter?

Harry just sort of strolled into my head, on a train journey. He arrived very fully formed. It was as though I was meeting him for the first time.

(Source: Chat session - 03-02-2000 )

Question on Names of monsters

Was it hard to think of the monsters' names?

Some of the monsters are from folklore, so I didn't invent them. In Book IV you'll see some creatures I did invent, and I had fun making up their names. But I'm not going to say what they are. :-)

(Source: Chat session - 03-02-2000 )

Question on Names of the Hogwarts Houses

What made you think of the people's names and dormitories at Hogwarts?

I invented the names of the Houses on the back of an airplane sick bag! This is true. I love inventing names, but I also collect unusual names, so that I can look through my notebook and choose one that suits a new character.

(Source: Chat session - 03-02-2000 )

Question on Getting ideas

When you were stuck on the train was there anything that triggered your imagination, and did that incident inspire Book III?

I have no idea where the idea came from, it just fell into my head!

(Source: Chat session - 03-02-2000 )

Question on Quidditch

Some of the best parts are the ideas like Quidditch, which is a high-speed ballgame played on broomsticks. Tell me about the origins of Quidditch.

I can talk wildly about those. I had a blazing row with an ex-boyfriend. I had been writing Harry Potter books for about a year, and I had decided that one of the unifying characteristics of any given society is sport. Almost any society you can think of will have its own games and sports. I decided I wanted to -- and then we had this blazing row. I don't know whether it's cause and effect. I doubt it. But I walked out of the flat and I booked into a hotel for a night and rather than sit there and think about this row, I sat there and invented Quidditch.

(Source: CBC's Evan Solomon - 13-07-2000 )

Question on Magic

Did you ever make a study of herbs and other Hogwarts subjects, or did you create all those classes from inspiration?

Most of the magic is made up. Occasionally I will use something that people used to believe was true, for example, the "Hand of Glory" which Draco gets from Borgin and Burkes in Chamber of Secrets.