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In the old days the question I was asked most often was, 'how do you pronounce the girl's name?' As I expect you have noticed, I cunningly inserted the answer to this question in 'Goblet of Fire', when I had Hermione instruct Viktor Krum how to say it properly: Her - my - o - nee. I used to hear 'Her - moyne' a lot, but my favourite mis-pronunciation ever was 'Hermy - one.' I think I like it better than the proper way. JK Rowling Official Site

In the dim and distant past Hermione's surname was 'Puckle', but it didn't suit her at all and was quickly changed for something a little bit less frivolous. JK Rowling Official Site

Family

[Will we get to know the Grangers? Is Hermione an only child?] I always planned that Hermione would have a younger sister but she's never made an appearance and somehow it feels like it might be too late now. World Book Day chat (March 2004)

Well we've seen [Hermione’s parents] very briefly, but they're dentists so they're not that interesting. Royal Albert Hall (June 2003)

Romantic Possibilities

Do Harry and Hermione have a date? No, they are very platonic friends, but I won't answer for anyone else, nudge nudge wink wink. Press Club interview (October 1999, transcribed by Anna Moon at SQ)

Harry and Hermione... d'you really think they're suited? AOL Chat (May 2000)

[Does Hermione like Ron as more than a friend?] The answer to that is in Goblet of Fire, Zsenya! Comic Relief chat (March 2001)

[Any snogging with Hermione?] (slight frown) Hermione and Harry! Do you think so? [No I’m kidding.] Ron and Hermione, I would say, have more potential (or “tension”) there. Dateline NBC interview (June 2003)

[Does Hermione love Ron or Harry?] I can't believe that some of you haven't worked this one out yet, but I'm not going to answer because that would spoil the arguments, which I enjoy. JK Rowling Official Site

Similarly, [Hermione's] crushes on unsuitable men ... Just because you've got a good brain doesn't mean you're any better than the next person at keeping your hormones under control! Salon.com Interview (March 1999)

S.P.E.W.

And Hermione gets a political conscience. Yeah! Newsround Interview (October 2000)

Hermione with the best of intentions becomes quite self-righteous. My heart is entirely with her as she goes through this. She develops her political conscience. My heart is completely with her. But my brain tells me, which is a growing-up thing, that in fact she blunders towards the very people she's trying to help. She offends them. She's not very sensitive to their-- She thinks it's so easy. It's part of what I was saying before about the growing process, of realizing you don't have quite as much power as you think you might have and having to accept that. Then you learn that it's hard work to change things and that it doesn't happen overnight. Hermione thinks she's going to lead them to glorious rebellion in one afternoon and then finds out the reality is very different.CBC Newsworld Interview (July 2000)

General Characterization

[Hermione] is a caricature of me: I was neither as bright nor as annoying as Hermione. At least, I hope I wasn't, because I would have deserved drowning at birth. But she, like me, lightens up. As I went through my teens, things actually got better. I began to realise that there was more to me than just someone who got everything right. Telegraph article (July 1998)

I have often said that Hermione is a bit like me when I was younger. I think I was seen by other people as a right little know-it-all, but I hope that it is clear that underneath Hermione's swottiness there is a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure (as shown by her Boggart in 'Prisoner of Azkaban'). JK Rowling Official Site

However, Hermione is such a good friend too, that I don't feel I have short-changed girls [by making the main character a boy]! AOL Chat (October 2000)

What irritates me is that I am constantly, increasingly, being asked 'Can we have a strong female character, please?' Like they are ordering a side order of chips. I am thinking 'Isn't Hermione strong enough for you?' She is the most brilliant of the three and they need her. Harry needs her badly. But my hero is a boy and at the age he has been girls simply do not figure that much. Increasingly, they do. But, at 11, I think it would be extremely contrived to throw in a couple of feisty, gorgeous, brilliant-at-maths and great-at-fixing-cars girls. Times Interview (June 2000)

What I find interesting is only once has anyone said to me, "Don't kill Hermione," and that was after a reading when I said no one's ever worried about her. Another kid said, "Yeah, well, she's bound to get through O.K." They see her as someone who is not vulnerable, but I see her as someone who does have quite a lot of vulnerability in her personality. Hermione is me, near enough. A caricature of me when I was younger. I wasn't that clever. But I was that annoying on occasion. Girls are very tolerant of her because she is not an uncommon female type-the little girl who feels plain and hugely compensates by working very hard and wanting to get everything just so. Time Pacific Article (October 2000)

Hermione is deeply insecure under her know-it-all manner, and the way to underline that aspect of her is to make her come, like Harry, from a different world [her parents are both Muggles, i.e., nonwizards], so that this is scary to her, and she copes with it the only way she knows how to cope, which is to overachieve. Time Pacific Article (December 2000)

Is this your idea of Hermione lightening up as you've said before? She didn't seem that light to me. No, she will! She's a good girl. I agree with you - she's not that light in this book. But people made the mistake of assuming that my answers referred to Book Four. There are another three books to go. But in some ways - she's more of a rule breaker now. Where her convictions are concerned, she's prepared to do stuff that she's really not supposed to do. But she will lighten up. I promise you. I did. Newsround Interview (July 2000)

When we were editing 'Philosopher's Stone' my editor wanted me to cut the scene in which Harry, Ron and Hermione fight the troll. Although I had accepted most of the smaller cuts he wanted me to make I argued hard for this one. Hermione, bless her, is so very annoying in the early part of 'Philosopher's Stone' that I really felt it needed something (literally) huge to bring her together with Harry and Ron. JK Rowling Official Site

If you [Kloves] get Hermione we can work together. January Magazine Interview (October 2000)

The Sugar Quill was created by Zsenya and Arabella. For questions, please send us an Owl!