Editing Lord Voldemort (section)

=== Personality ===
Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years".<ref name="rehm">{{cite web |url=http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1299-wamu-rehm.htm |title=J.K. Rowling on The Diane Rehm Show |publisher=WAMU Radio Washington, D.C. |date=20 October 1999 |access-date=15 August 2007}}</ref> She elaborated that he is a "raging [[psychopath]], devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a [[sadistic personality disorder|sadist]] who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no [[conscience]], feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.<ref name="EW2000">{{cite web |first=Jeff|last=Jensen |url=http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0900-ew-jensen.htm |title=Fire Storm|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=7 September 2000 |access-date=20 April 2008 }}</ref>
He feels no need for human companionship or friendship and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Lord Voldemort".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/things-you-may-not-have-noticed-about-lord-voldemort |title=Things you may not have noticed about Lord Voldemort |website=[[Pottermore]] |date=19 March 2018 |access-date=17 August 2020}}</ref> Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. [[Racism|Racist]], really",<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=A Good Scare |url=http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/20001030/potter.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|issue=43|date=30 October 2000 |access-date=3 November 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080114013140/http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/20001030/potter.html |archive-date=14 January 2008 }}</ref> and that if Voldemort were to look into the [[Mirror of Erised]], in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."<ref>{{cite web |title=What Jo says about...Lord Voldemort, aka Tom Marvolo Riddle |url=http://www.accio-quote.org/themes/voldemort.htm |access-date=3 November 2008}}</ref>

Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a [[love potion]] administered by his mother, a witch named [[Merope Gaunt]], to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".<ref name="AfterBook7" />

Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a [[Death anxiety|pathological fear of death]], which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his [[Boggart (Harry Potter)|Boggart]] would be his own corpse.<ref name="www.accio-quote.org"/> Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.<ref name="AfterBook7" />