"Mid-20s life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted," [Rowling] said, according to an interview posted online by student journalist Adeel Amini.

"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking, 'I'm a little bit miserable,"' Rowling, 42, was quoted as saying.

"I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never," Rowling was quoted as saying in her interview with Amini. "What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that."