J.K. Rowling wishes she could rewrite her 'Harry Potter' books

While J.K. Rowling might be forever thankful of the impact that Harry Potter has had on her life, there are a couple of elements of the series she wishes she could go back and change.

Anyone who's read Rowling's seven Harry Potter novels can tell that her writing improved over the course of the series. She knows it too, and she tells BBC News in a new interview that she wishes she had the freedom to go back and edit her books for the better.

"There were a couple of the Potters and I definitely knew that they needed another year," she says. "I had to write on the run and there were times when it was really tough, and I read them, and I think 'Oh God, maybe I'll go back and do a director's cut', I don't know. But you know what, I'm proud I was writing under the conditions under which I was writing, no one will ever know how tough it was at times."

Rowling's new book The Casual Vacancy comes out today, and it welcomes in a new era of Rowling's career. The Harry Potter novels are her only published work, and the new comic tragedy will be a big departure from the children's stories that made her a star. That's okay with Rowling, though, because that's the freedom that success has given her.

"Harry Potter truly liberated me in the sense that there's only one reason to write, for me — if I genuinely have something I want to say, and I want to publish it," she says.

Speaking of that success, it turns out that the British author who is richer than the Queen of England is not quite as wealthy as she used to be. The New Zealand Herald is reporting that Rowling has given so much of her money away to charity that she no longer can be considered a billionaire. Rowling has invested much of her time when she's not writing to support the research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, improve child welfare, fight poverty and teach people to read.

In an interview with Good Morning America, Rowling says that doing these good things for the world is the least she can do after the success Potter gave her.

"[Harry Potter] cheered me up a lot. Harry Potter gave me back self respect, Harry gave me a job to do that I love more than anything else. So forget the money, let’s just say it had made just enough to justify continuing to write. It would’ve still cheered me up a huge amount," she says. "It was an amazing thing that happened."

She also teases that her political fairy tale that she's been working on for the past few years is close to completion.

Would you want to see "director's cut" versions of Rowling's work?