SOURCE: “Six Questions: J. K. Rowling,” in Writer's Digest, Vol. 80, No. 2, February, 2000, pp. 10–11.

In the following interview, Crawford discusses the very busy life of J. K. Rowling.

J. K. Rowling (pronounced ROHE-ling) has made a lot of friends lately, and she doesn't know most of them. According to Publishers Weekly, there are 8.9 million hardcover and paperback Harry Potter books in print. Her US publisher had to move up the publication of the second book in the series because fans of the first were busily ordering the UK edition from Amazon.com. The series has been translated into 28 languages, and Christopher Little, Rowling's agent, receives “a considerable amount” of requests from potential Harry Potter licensees every day. Her book-signings are mob scenes—kids wearing wizard's robes and lightning bolt decals on their foreheads wait hours for a glimpse of “the Harry Potter Woman.”

Even with millions of new friends...