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 to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know. I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. The wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
J. K. RowlingDo youโdo you think I want toโdo you think I give aโI DON'T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY!" Harry roared. "You will," said Dumbledore sadly. "Because you are not nearly as mad at me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it.
J. K. RowlingI was very low and I had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad.
J. K. RowlingNever," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon.
J. K. RowlingHalf 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. โIโve got two Neptunes here,โ said Harry after a while, frowning down at his piece of parchment, โthat canโt be right, can it?โ โAaaaah,โ said Ron, imitating Professor Trelawneyโs mystical whisper, โwhen two Neptunes appear in the sky, it is a sure sign that a midget in glasses is being born, Harry . . .
J. K. Rowling