J.K. Rowling, the best-selling author of the
Harry Potter
series, said she could imagine herself resurrecting her lucrative boy wizard, despite having officially penned his final adventures.
"I could definitely write an eighth, ninth and tenth," Rowling told US chat show host Oprah Winfrey on
ABC television
. "I'm not going to say I won't. I don't think I will. I feel I am done, but you never know."
Rowling laid down her pen - and Harry's magic wand - when she finished the seventh book in 2007, with a stunning record of 400 million copies of the series sold around the world.
She told Winfrey of her difficulties in coming to terms with the end of the story that made her name and fortune.
"The end was huge. Like a bereavement. Although I knew it was coming - we all know the people we love are mortal, we know it's going to end - you can't prepare yourself for it. I was in a slight state of shock," she said.
{{/usCountry}}"The end was huge. Like a bereavement. Although I knew it was coming - we all know the people we love are mortal, we know it's going to end - you can't prepare yourself for it. I was in a slight state of shock," she said.
{{/usCountry}}But she will continue to write in some form, she said. "I literally can't stop. I have to do it."