Books
11 Empowering J.K. Rowling Quotes For Women
Whether or not you’ve joined the legions of Potterheads actively worshiping at the church of Hogwarts, there’s no denying that the mastermind behind the obsessed-over series, J.K.Rowling, is a badass — and these 11 J.K. Rowling quotes prove it. After all, the woman didn’t just create the characters that millions of readers have come to know and love, she’s also immensely generous and philanthropic, a great advocate for girls and women, and totally dedicated to her fans. Oh yeah, and she gave that one commencement speech heard ‘round the world, too.
But even without her impressive off-the-page resume, Rowling’s books alone should make you proud to call yourself a fellow woman. She’s become known as a feminist writer for good reason. Rowling’s female characters, from Hermione Granger to Luna Lovegood, are some of the most beloved leading ladies in all of fiction. They’re unabashedly intelligent and witty, they’re never afraid to save their own butts, and no matter what pressures they may face they refuse to compromise their own beliefs. If their stories don’t have you feeling all the girl-power feels, I don’t know what will.
Here are 11 J.K. Rowling quotes that will make you feel proud to be a woman.
1. “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.”
— Harvard Commencement Address
2. “So much is expected of you as you become a woman, and often you are asked to sacrifice parts of you in becoming a girl, I would say. Hermione doesn’t.”
— J.K. Rowling and the Women of Harry Potter
3. "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.”
4. “The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.”
— Harvard Commencement Address
5. “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 … I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
— Harvard Commencement Address
6. “I consider myself to be a feminist, and I'd always wanted to show that just because a woman has made a choice, a free choice to say, 'Well, I'm going to raise my family and that's going to be my choice. I may go back to a career, I may have a career part time, but that's my choice.' Doesn't mean that that's all she can do.”
— J.K. Rowling and the Women of Harry Potter
7. “Cinderella? Snow White? What's that? An illness?”
— Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
8. “I'm a writer, and I will write what I want to write.”
— The New Yorker , interview
9. “I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters, they are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude through our own apathy.”
— Harvard Commencement Address
10. “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.”
— The Telegraph , interview
11. "You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve."
— Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Images: Giphy (6)
