Splendor Solis

And in the end, I distilled everything to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.

Q: Nicholas Lezard has written ‘Rowling can type, but Le Guin can write.’ What do you make of this comment in the light of the phenomenal success of the Potter books? I’d like to hear your opinion of JK Rowling’s writing style

UKL: I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the “incredible originality” of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid’s fantasy crossed with a “school novel”, good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited.

living in the little town, having a big cottage, wearing black lace dress while reading magic books and working with crystals, collecting herbs at midnight and making potions from them while spending time by candlelight

‘cause in all the worlds I’ve come upon I never saw another one that sparkled like your diamond in the sun // and even on the silent sea your constellation carries me along