Joanne Rowling CH, OBE, HonFRSE, FRCPE, FRSL, better known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author, film producer, television producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Profoundly inspirational J.K. Rowling quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.
If you’re searching for deep quotes by authors that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of quotes from Joan Didion, powerful John Green quotes and famous J.R.R Tolkien quotes.
Famous J. K. Rowling Quotes
I will defend the importance of bedtime stories to my last gasp. – J.K Rowling
I don’t think there’s any harm at all in allowing a kid to fantasize. In fact, I think to stop people from fantasizing is a very destructive thing indeed. – J.K Rowling
That’s what they should teach us here. How girls’ brains work… It would be more useful than divination, anyway. – J.K Rowling
I mean, is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me I’d rather [my daughters] were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before ‘thin’. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. – J.K Rowling
We can’t choose our fate, but we can choose others. Be careful in knowing that. – J.K Rowling
Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home. – J.K Rowling
The fridge had been emptied of all Dudley’s favorite things — fizzy drinks and cakes, chocolate bars and burgers — and filled instead with fruit and vegetables and the sorts of things that Uncle Vernon called rabbit food. – J.K Rowling
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. – J.K Rowling
Don’t let the muggles get you down. – J.K Rowling
The sky was a cold iron-grey, like the underside of a shield. A sharp breeze lifted the hems of skirts and rattled the leaves on the immature trees; a spiteful, chill wind that sought out your weakest places, the nape of your neck and your knees, and which denied you the comfort of dreaming, of retreating a little from reality. – J.K Rowling
Things denied, things untold, things hidden and disguised. – J.K Rowling
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. I wish you all very good lives. – J.K Rowling
Life is too short. I only want to do things that I enjoy, or that I think are good or worth doing. – J.K Rowling
I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls. – J.K Rowling
It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well. – J.K Rowling
You are protected, in short, by your ability to love! – J.K Rowling
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned. – J.K Rowling
You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it. – J.K Rowling
It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – J.K Rowling
On and on they flew, over the countryside parceled out in patches of green and brown, over roads and rivers winding through the landscapes like strips of matte and glossy ribbon. – J.K Rowling
I think you have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently. – J.K Rowling
It’s your one last chance, said Harry, it’s all you’ve got left. I’ve seen what you’ll be otherwise. Be a man try. Try for some remorse. – J.K Rowling
But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy’ll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway. And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens? Throw it away and punch him on the nose, Ron suggested. – J.K Rowling
Imagination is … the foundation of all invention and innovation. – J.K Rowling
Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. Ghosts are transparent. – J.K Rowling
The ones that love us never really leave us. – J.K Rowling
If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. – J.K Rowling
In fact, you couldn’t give me anything to make me go back to being a teenager. Never. No, I hated it. – J.K Rowling
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better. – J.K Rowling
Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I’ll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don’t – well, I think I’ve cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don’t know that they’ve got a daughter, you see. – J.K Rowling
Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places. – J.K Rowling
I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for. – J.K Rowling
There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. – J.K Rowling
Sometimes you have to stop trying to force it, walk away and let your subconscious show you the way. Fill up on life for a while. – J.K Rowling
You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no . . . anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just — exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever . . . lost. – J.K Rowling
Always have a vivid imagination, for you never know when you might need it. – J.K Rowling
I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr. Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism. – J.K Rowling
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. – J.K Rowling
I’m serious, Harry, don’t go. But Harry only had one thought in his head, which was to get back in front of the mirror, and Ron wasn’t going to stop him. That third night he found his way more quickly than before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise, but he didn’t meet anyone. And there were his mother and father smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers nodding happily. Harry sank down to sit on the floor in front of the mirror. There was nothing to stop him from staying here all night with his family. Nothing at all. – J.K Rowling
When people are very damaged, they can often meet the world with a kind of defiance. – J.K Rowling
It’s so difficult to describe [depression] to someone who’s never been there, because it’s not sadness. I know sadness. Sadness is to cry and to feel. But it’s that cold absence of feeling — that really hollowed-out feeling. – J.K Rowling
Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. – J.K Rowling
If it’s a good book, anyone will read it. I’m totally unashamed about still reading things I loved in my childhood. – J.K Rowling
Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. – J.K Rowling
If you’re not in Gryffindor, we’ll disinherit you, said Ron, but no pressure. – J.K Rowling
According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scars than almost anything else. – J.K Rowling
They see Hermione as someone who is not vulnerable, but I see her as someone who does have quite a lot of vulnerability in her personality. – J.K Rowling
Half an hour later, each of them had been given a complicated circular chart and was attempting to fill in the position of the planets at their moment of birth. It was dull work, requiring much consultation of timetables and calculation of angles. I’ve got two Neptunes here, said Harry after a while, frowning down at his piece of parchment, that can’t be right, can it? Aaaaah, said Ron, imitating Professor Trelawney’s mystical whisper, when two Neptunes appear in the sky, it is a sure sign that a midget in glasses is being born, Harry . . . – J.K Rowling
Wherever I am, if I’ve got a book with me, I have a place I can go and be happy – J.K Rowling
However,’ said Dumbledore, speaking very slowly and clearly so that none of them could miss a word, ‘you will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it. – J.K Rowling
He felt his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. How strange that in his dread of death, it pumped all the harder, valiantly keeping him alive. But it would have to stop, and soon. Its beats were numbered. How many would there be time for, as he rose and walked through the castle for the last time, out into the grounds and into the forest? – J.K Rowling
I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best, she could with the talent she had. – J.K Rowling
It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. – J.K Rowling
There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place. – J.K Rowling
We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are. – J.K Rowling
You must accept the reality of other people. You think that reality is up for negotiation, that we think it’s whatever you say it is. You must accept that we are as real as you are; you must accept that you are not God. – J.K Rowling
Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies. – J.K Rowling
The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed. – J.K Rowling
And sure enough, in seeking to become superhuman this foolhardy young man renders himself inhuman. The heart that he has locked away slowly shrivels and grows hair, symbolizing his own descent to beasthood. – J.K Rowling
The spells are made up. I have met people who assure me, very seriously, that they are trying to do them, and I can assure them, just as seriously, that they don’t work. – J.K Rowling
Yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often. Best to say nothing at all, my dear man. – J.K Rowling
Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love. – J.K Rowling
We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already. – J.K Rowling
Always the innocent are the first victims, so it has been for ages past, so it is now. – J.K Rowling
Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. – J.K Rowling
It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more. – J.K Rowling
Be ruthless about protecting writing days. – J.K Rowling
Get up, you useless lump, get up! – J.K Rowling
I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being–forgive me–rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger. – J.K Rowling
I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never. What’s to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that. – J.K Rowling
It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us. – J.K Rowling
Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters, for without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves we collude with it through our apathy. – J.K Rowling
Abundance is the quality of life you live and quality of life you give to others. – J.K Rowling
Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing. – J.K Rowling
Hedwig didn’t return until the end of the Easter holidays. Percy’s letter was enclosed in a package of Easter eggs that Mrs. Weasley had sent. Both Harry’s and Ron’s were the size of dragon eggs, and full of home-made toffee. Hermione’s, however, was smaller than a chicken’s egg. Her face fell when she saw it. Your mum doesn’t read Witch’s Weekly, by any chance, does she, Ron? she asked quietly. Yeah, said Ron, whose mouth was full of toffee. Gets it for the recipes. Hermione looked sadly at her tiny egg. – J.K Rowling
When I was in my teens, I had issues with OCD. – J.K Rowling
I’ve been writing since I was six. It is a compulsion, so I can’t really say where the desire came from; I’ve always had it. My breakthrough with the first book came through persistence, because a lot of publishers turned it down! – J.K Rowling
Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that’s what Voldemort does. – J.K Rowling
Rack your brains, that should only take a couple of seconds. – J.K Rowling
Twilight fell: The sky turned to a light; dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars. – J.K Rowling
Dumbledore’s man through and through, aren’t you Potter? Yeah, I am, said Harry. Glad we straightened that out. – J.K Rowling
There is no part of me that feels that I represented myself as your children’s babysitter or their teacher. I was always, I think, completely honest. I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write. – J.K Rowling
A Horcrux is the complete opposite of a human being. – J.K Rowling
Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides. ‘So — after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating —’ ‘Jordan!’ growled Professor McGonagall. ‘I mean after that open and revolting foul —’ ‘Jordan, I’m warning you —’ ‘All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I’m sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession. – J.K Rowling
But who could bear to know which stars were already dead, she thought, blinking up at the night sky; could anybody stand to know that they all were? – J.K Rowling
He tried to give his wife pleasure in little ways, because he had come to realize, after nearly two decades together, how often he disappointed her in the big things. It was never intentional. They simply had very different notions of what ought to take up most space in life. – J.K Rowling
I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write. – J.K Rowling
I’ve no idea where ideas come from and I hope I never find out; it would spoil the excitement for me if it turned out I just have a funny little wrinkle on the surface of my brain which makes me think about invisible train platforms. – J.K Rowling
Print will never die. There’s no substitute for the feel of an actual book. I adore physically turning pages, and being able to underline passages and not worrying about dropping them in the bath or running out of power. I also find print books objects of beauty. – J.K Rowling
Wands are only as powerful as the wizards who use them. Some wizards just like to boast that theirs are bigger and better than other people’s. – J.K Rowling
Dumbledore paused, and although his voice remained light and calm, and he gave no obvious sign of anger, Harry felt a kind of chill emanating from him and noticed that the Dursleys drew very slightly closer together. You did not do as I asked. You have never treated Harry as a son. He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands. The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you. – J.K Rowling
We have to choose between what is right, and what is easy. – J.K Rowling
Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose. – J.K Rowling
You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky. – J.K Rowling
It’s our choices, more than anything, that show who we really are. – J.K Rowling
I believe in hard work and luck, and that the first often leads to the second – J.K Rowling
Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. – J.K Rowling
Death comes for us all in the end. – J.K Rowling
On the other hand, the Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far. – J.K Rowling
He never seemed to grasp the immense mutability of human nature, nor to appreciate that behind every nondescript face lay a wild and unique hinterland like his own. – J.K Rowling
The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary. – J.K Rowling
You think I’m a fool? demanded Harry. No, I think you’re like James, said Lupin, who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends. – J.K Rowling
Depression isn’t just being a bit sad. It’s feeling nothing. It’s not wanting to be alive anymore. – J.K Rowling
The world is full of wonderful things you haven’t seen yet. Don’t ever give up on the chance of seeing them. – J.K Rowling
It is my baby and if I want to bring it out to play again, I will. – J.K Rowling
Hogwarts is threatened! shouted Professor McGonagall. Man the boundaries, protect us, do your duty to our school! – J.K Rowling
Pagford, which by night was no more than a cluster of twinkling lights in a dark hollow far below, was emerging into chilly sunlight. – J.K Rowling
Achievable goals are the first step to self improvement. – J.K Rowling
The world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. – J.K Rowling
You have to resign yourself to the fact that you waste a lot of trees before you write anything you really like, and that’s just the way it is. It’s like learning an instrument, you’ve got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot, cause I wrote an awful lot before I wrote anything I was really happy with. And read a lot. Reading really helps. Read anything you can get your hands on. – J.K Rowling
Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe. – J.K Rowling
Oh, of course, said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. I forgot we’ll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library. – J.K Rowling
Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. – J.K Rowling
It’s the same story with a few crucial additions; the most important one is you. – J.K Rowling
Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain. – J.K Rowling
I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I’m in good company there. – J.K Rowling
Secretly we’re all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be. – J.K Rowling
To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. – J.K Rowling
I know what you are known as… but to me, you will always be Tom Riddle. It is one of the irritating things about old teachers. I am afraid that they never quite forget their charges’ youthful beginnings. – J.K Rowling
Failure is not fun. It can be awful. But living so cautiously that you never fail is worse. – J.K Rowling
Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. – J.K Rowling
There is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be. – J.K Rowling
