Jo: Dumbledore does express the regret that he always had to be the one who knew, and had to be the burden of knowing. He would rather not know.

My favorite comment about Harry at the time of the first book was abut a schoolboy who was interviewed...he said, 'He doesn't seem to know what's going on a lot of the time, and nor do I.'"

Jo: In self-defense, Harry had to, because of what I'm trying to say about Harry as a hero, because he's a very human hero...Harry therefore did have to reach a point where he did almost breakdown and say he didn't want to play anymore, he didn't want to be the hero anymore and he'd lost too much and he didn't want to lose anything. So Phoenix was the point at which I decided he had to have his breakdown. And now he will rise from the ashes, strengthened.