Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven.

A good first impression can work wonders

But Colin's only understanding of love was of limitless loyalty, boundless tolerance.

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.

Do I look stupid?" snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.

Finding out what you’re good at, and doing it to the best of your ability, is the route to self-respect.

Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg.