J K Rowling on Burnout Quotes

"The pressure was very high, and I had no idea of the scale of what was going to happen."

"I don't believe in the 'tortured artist' myth, but I do believe in the exhausted one."

"Depression is that cold absence of feeling—that really hollowed-out feeling. That's what the Dementors are."

"I directed all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me."

"I felt that I was a walking disaster. I felt that I was failing at everything."

"I reached a point where I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had to build the light myself."

"Sometimes you have to step away from the noise to remember your own voice."

"Give yourself permission to be human and to be messy."

"I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive."

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default."

"Writing was my way of coping with the world, but eventually, I needed the world to stop so I could just write."

"You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity."

"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive."

"I had to remind myself why I started in the first place—to tell a story, not to win a race."

"The world doesn't stop because you are tired, but you must learn when to stop for the world."

"There is a period where you just have to stop. You have to admit that you are human."

"I had to rebuild myself piece by piece, starting with the smallest habits."

"I was very, very tired for a long time. It wasn't just physical; it was a soul-tiredness."

"Mental health is just as important as physical health, and we must treat it with the same urgency."

"I felt I had to keep running just to stay in the same place. That is when the joy leaves."

"The discipline of finishing is what separates the dreamers from the writers, but the discipline of resting is what keeps the writers alive."

"I had to learn to say no to things that were taking me away from the only work that mattered."

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

"The fear of success is just as exhausting as the fear of failure."

"Success brings its own kind of exhaustion. You are suddenly public property."

"The hardest thing is the expectation. You feel you are letting people down if you aren't perfect."

"I think the Dementors are the most unpleasant things I've ever written. They are a description of depression."

"I had a sense of being under a microscope, and it makes you want to hide."

"Reclaiming your time is the first step to recovery from the weight of the world."

"I was very aware that I was burning the candle at both ends, and the candle was getting very short."

"Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was."

"You have to protect your creative space with a ferocity that people might find rude."

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."