Because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business.

I was just sitting on the train, just staring out the window at some cows. It was not the most inspiring subject. When all of a sudden the idea of Harry just appeared in my mind's eye.

I believe in hard work and luck, and that the first often leads to the second

Imagination is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

And without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her.

I took a wrong turn on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I had never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamberpots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon - or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder.

At fourteen, you really do start realising that the world is not a safe and protected place or not always.