JK Rowling's Harvard speech focuses on imagination

Published on Friday 6 June 2008 10:46

JK ROWLING has stressed the importance of imagination during a speech at Harvard University, saying: "We do not need magic to transform our world."

The Harry Potter author also spoke about the benefit of failure, recalling the humiliations of her time in poverty before her career took off.

Before the speech, former Harvard students paid tribute to Rowling by carrying brooms during an alumni procession.

Rowling, who was given an honorary doctor of letters degree, urged the Harvard grads to use their influence and status to speak out on behalf of the powerless.

President Drew Gilpin Faust also welcomed witches, wizards and Muggles – non-magical people in Rowling's books – to the commencement.

Faust noted there was a larger number of children than normally expected for a Harvard graduation.

Rowling said: "We do not need magic to transform our world," she said. "We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better."

Imagination gives one the ability to empathise with others, she said.

Rowling described a low point seven years after graduating from college, when she was a poor single mother, and said: "You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity."