Rowling holds out hope for more Potter

Author J.K. Rowling says she's moved on to a new phase in her writing but she's not going to rule out another Harry Potter novel.

"I'm not saying I won't. I love writing them," Rowling said in a taped interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Friday.

The daytime talk show hosttalked toRowling, who rarely gives interviews, atthe Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in late August.

Rowling said she felt a loss upon finishing the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

"It was a bereavement. It was huge. Although I knew it was coming," Rowling said. "Initially I was elated, but then I cried like I haven't cried since my mother died."

She said the characters are still in her head.

Rowling said she feels no need to match the success of the boy wizard series as she moves on with her writing.

"I have to write for my own mental health. I need to write. I love it, I need to do it," she said.

The hour-long interview also touched on Rowling's reaction to her fame and the pressures of dealing with adoring fans who she describes sometimes as "crazy."

"I kept saying to people, 'Yeah, I'm coping' ... but the truth was there were times when I was barely hanging on by a thread," she said of her second U.S. book tour.

Rowling said she's happy now after dealing with depression at certain periods in her life.