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Quotations by J.K. Rowling
J.K. RowlingMagic in transforming the world - We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.

The mind is not a book, to be opened at will - The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by an invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing.

You could claim that anything is real - You could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!

An expiry date on blaming your parents - 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.

Depression, the most unpleasant thing - Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. . . . It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it's a healthy feeling. It is a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different.

Imagination - transformative and revolutionary - Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not. And therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revolutionary capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

Imagination for good, bad, or not at all - Unlike any other creature on this planet, human beings can learn and understand without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places. Of course, this is a power like my brand of fictional magic that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate or control just as much as to understand or sympathize. And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or peer inside pages. They can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally. They can refuse to know.