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president Faust members of the Harvard

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corporation and the Board of Overseers

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members of the faculty proud parents and

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above all graduates the first thing I

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would like to say is thank you

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not only has half had given me an

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extraordinary honor but the weeks of

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fear and nausea I have endured at the

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thought of giving this commencement

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address have made me lose weight a

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win-win situation now all I have to do

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is take deep breaths squint at the red

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banners and convince myself than up that

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I am at the world's largest Gryffindor

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reunion

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delivering a commencement address is a

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great responsibility or so I thought

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until I cast my mind back to my own

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graduation the commencement speaker that

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day was the distinguished British

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philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock

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reflecting on her speech has helped me

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enormous Lee in writing this one because

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it turns out that I can't remember a

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single word she said this liberating

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discovery enables me to proceed

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without any fear that I might

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inadvertently influence you to abandon

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promising careers in business the law or

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politics for the giddy delights of

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becoming a gay wizard

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you see if all you remember in years to

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come is the gay wizard joke I've come

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out ahead of Baroness marijuana

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achieve Abul goals the first step to

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self-improvement actually I have wrapped

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my mind and heart for what I ought to

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say to you today I have asked myself

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what I wish I had known at my own

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graduation and what important lessons I

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have learnt in the 21 years that have

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expired between that day and this I have

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come up with two answers on this

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wonderful day when we are gathered

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together to celebrate your academic

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success I have decided to talk to you

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about the benefits of failure and as you

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stand on the threshold of what is

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sometimes called real life I want to

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extol the crucial importance of

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imagination these may seem pricks otic

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or paradoxical choices but bear with me

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looking back at the 21 year old that I

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was at graduation is a slightly

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uncomfortable experience for the 42 year

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old that she has become half my lifetime

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ago I was striking an uneasy balance

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between the ambition I had for myself

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and what those closest talk to me

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expected of me I was convinced that the

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only thing I wanted to do ever was write

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novels however my parents both of whom

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came from impoverished backgrounds and

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neither of whom had been to college took

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the view that my overactive imagination

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was an amusing personal quirk that would

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never pay a mortgage or secure a pension

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I know the irony strikes with the force

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of a cartoon anvil now

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so they hoped that I would take a

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vocational degree I wanted to study

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English literature a compromise was

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reached that in retrospect satisfied

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nobody and I went up to study Modern

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Languages hardly had my parents car

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round at the corner at the end of the

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road than I ditched German and scuttled

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off down the classics corridor

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I cannot remember telling my parents

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that I was studying classics they might

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well have found out for the first time

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on graduation day of all the subjects on

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this planet I think they would have been

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hard put to name one less useful and

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Greek mythology when it came to securing

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the keys to an executive bathroom now I

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would like to make it clear in

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parentheses that I do not blame my

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parents for their point of view there is

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an expiry date on blaming your parents

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for steering you in the wrong direction

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the moment you are old enough to take

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the wheel responsibility lies with you

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what is more I cannot criticize my

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parents for hoping that I would never

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experience poverty they had been poor

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themselves and I have since been poor

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and I quite agree with them that it is

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not an ennobling experience poverty

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entails fear and stress and sometimes

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depression it means a thousand petty

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humiliations and hardships climbing out

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of poverty by your own efforts that is

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something on which to pride yourself but

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poverty itself is romanticized only by

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fools what I feared most for myself at

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your age was not poverty but failure at

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your age in spite of a distinct lack of

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motivation at University where I had

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spent far too long in the coffee bar

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writing stories and far too little time

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at lectures I had a knack for passing

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examinations and that for years had been

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the measure of success in my life and

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that of my peers now I am not done

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enough to suppose that because you are

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young gifted and well-educated you have

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never known heartbreak hardship or

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heartache talent and intelligence never

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yet inoculated anyone against the

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Caprice of the fates and I do not for a

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moment suppose that everyone here has

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enjoyed an existence of unruffled

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privilege and contentment however the

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fact that you are graduating from

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Harvard suggests that you are not very

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well acquainted with failure

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you might be driven by a fear of failure

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quite as much as a desire for success

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indeed your conception of failure might

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not be too far removed from the average

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person's idea of success so high

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have you already flown ultimately we all

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have to decide for ourselves what

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constitutes failure but the world is

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quite eager to give you a set of

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criteria if you let it so I think it

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fair to say that by any conventional

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measure a mere seven years after my

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graduation day I had failed on an epic

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scale an exceptionally short lived

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marriage had imploded and I was jobless

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a lone parent and as poor as it is

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possible to be in modern Britain without

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being homeless the fears that my parents

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had had for me and that I had had for

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myself had both come to pass and by

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every usual standard I was the biggest

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failure I knew now I'm not going to

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stand here and tell you that failure is

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fun that period of my life is a dark one

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and I had no idea that there was going

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to be what the press has since

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represented as a kind of fairytale

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resolution I had no idea then how far

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the tunnel extended and for a long time

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any light at the end of it was a hope

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rather than a reality so why do I talk

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about the benefits of failure simply

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because failure meant us stripping away

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of the inessential I stopped pretending

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to myself that I was anything other than

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what I was and began to direct all my

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energy into finishing the only work that

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mattered to me had I really succeeded at

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anything else I might never have found

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the determination to succeed in the one

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arena where I believed I truly belonged

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I was set free because my greatest fear

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had been realized and I was still alive

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and I still had a daughter whom I adored

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and I had an old typewriter and a big

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idea

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and so rock-bottom became the solid

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foundation on which I rebuilt my life

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you might never fail on the scale I did

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but some failure in life is inevitable

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it is impossible to live without failing

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at something unless you live so

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cautiously that you might as well not

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have lived at all in which case you fail

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by default failure gave me an inner

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security that I had never attained by

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passing examinations failure taught me

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things about myself that I could have

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learned no other way I discovered that I

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had a strong will and more discipline

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than I had suspected I also found out

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that I had friends whose value was truly

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above the price of rubies the knowledge

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that you have emerged wiser and stronger

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from setbacks means that you are ever

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after secure in your ability to survive

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you will never truly know yourself or

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the strength of your relationships until

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both have been tested by adversity such

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knowledge is a true gift for all that it

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is painfully one and it has been worth

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more than any qualification I ever

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earned so given a time Turner I would

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tell my twenty-one year old self that

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personal happiness lies in knowing that

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life is not a checklist of acquisition

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or achievement your qualifications your

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CV are not your life though you will

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meet many people of my age and older who

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confuse the two life is difficult and

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complicated and beyond anyone's total

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control and the humility to know that

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will enable you to survive its

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vicissitudes now you might think that I

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chose my second theme the importance of

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imagination because of the part it

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played in rebuilding my life but that is

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not wholly so though I personally will

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defend the value of bedtime stories to

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my last gasp I have learned to value

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imagination in a much broader sense

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imagination is not only the uniquely

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human capacity

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envision that which is not and therefore

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the fount of all invention and

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innovation in its arguably most

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transformative and revelatory capacity

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it is the power that enables us to

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empathize with humans whose experiences

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we have never shared one of the greatest

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formative experiences of my life

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preceded Harry Potter though it informed

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much of what I subsequently wrote in

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those books this revelation came in the

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form of one of my earliest day jobs

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though I was sloping off to write

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stories during my lunch hours I paid the

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rent in my early twenties by working at

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the African research department of

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Amnesty International's headquarters in

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London there in my little office

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I read hastily scribbled letters

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smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by

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men and women who were risking

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imprisonment to inform the outside world

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of what was happening to them I saw

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photographs of those who had disappeared

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without trace sent to amnesty by their

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desperate families and friends I read

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the testimony of torture victims and saw

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pictures of their injuries

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I opened handwritten eyewitness accounts

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of summary trials and executions of

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kidnappings and rapes many of my

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co-workers were ex political prisoners

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people who had been displaced from their

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homes or fled into exile because they

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had the temerity to speak against their

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governments visitors to our offices

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included those who had come to give

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information or to try and find out what

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had happened to those who had left

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behind I shall never forget the African

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torture victim a young man no older than

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I was at the time who had become

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mentally ill after all he had endured in

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his homeland he trembled uncontrollably

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as he spoke into a video camera about

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the brutality inflicted upon him he was

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a foot taller than I was and seemed as

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fragile as a child I was given the job

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of in scoring him back to the

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underground station afterwards

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and this man whose life had been

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shattered by cruelty took my hand with

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exquisite courtesy and wished me future

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happiness and as long as I live I shall

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remember walking along an empty corridor

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and suddenly hearing from behind a

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closed door a scream of pain and horror

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such as I have never heard since the

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door opened and the researcher poked out

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her out her head and told me to run and

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make a hot drink for the young man

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sitting with her she had just had to

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give him the news that in retaliation

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for his outspokenness against his

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country's regime his mother had been

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seized and executed every day of my

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working week in my early twenties I was

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reminded how incredibly fortunate I was

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to live in a country with a

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democratically elected government where

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legal representation and a public trial

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were the rights of everyone everyday I

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saw more evidence about the evils

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humankind would inflict on their fellow

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humans to gain or maintain power I began

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to have nightmares literal nightmares

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about some of the things I saw heard and

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read and yet I also learned more about

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human goodness at Amnesty International

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than I had ever known before

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amnesty mobilizes thousands of people

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who have never been tortured or

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imprisoned for their beliefs to act on

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behalf of those who have the power of

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human empathy leading to collective

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action saves lives and frees prisoners

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ordinary people whose personal

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well-being and security are assured join

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together in huge numbers to save people

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they do not know and will never meet my

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small participation in that process was

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one of the most humbling and inspiring

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experiences of my life unlike any other

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creature on this planet human beings can

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learn and understand without having

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experienced they can think themselves

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into other people's places of course

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this is a power like my brand of

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fictional magic that is morally neutral

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one might use such an ability to

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manipulate or control just as much as to

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understand or sympathise and many prefer

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not to exercise their imaginations at

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all they choose to remain comfortably

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within the bounds of their own

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experience never troubling to wonder how

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it would feel to have been born other

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than they are they can refuse to hear

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screams or peer inside cages they can

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close their minds and hearts to any

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suffering that does not touch them

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personally they can refuse to know I

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might be tempted to envy people who can

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live that way except that I do not think

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they have any fewer nightmares than I do

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choosing to live in narrow spaces leads

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to a form of mental Agra phobia and that

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brings its own terrors

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I think the willfully unimaginative see

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more monsters they are often more afraid

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what is more those who choose not to

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empathize enable real monsters for

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without ever committing an act of

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outright evil ourselves we collude with

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it through our own apathy one of the

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many things I learned at the end of that

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classics corridor down which I ventured

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at the age of eighteen in search of

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something I could not then define was

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this written by the Greek author

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Plutarch what we achieve inwardly will

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change outer reality that is an

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astonishing statement and get proven a

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thousand times every day of our lives it

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expresses in part our inescapable

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connection with the outside world the

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fact that we touch other people's lives

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simply by existing but how much more are

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you Harvard graduates of 2008 lightly to

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touch other people's lives your

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intelligence

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your capacity for hard work the

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education you have earned and received

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give you unique unique status and unique

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responsibilities even your nationality

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sets you apart the great majority of you

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belong to the world's only remaining

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superpower the way you vote the way you

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live the way you protest the pressure

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you bring to bear on your government has

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an impact way beyond your borders that

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is your privilege and your burden if you

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choose to use your status and influence

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to raise your voice on behalf of those

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who have no voice if you choose to

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identify not only with the powerful but

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with the powerless if you retain the

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ability to imagine yourself into the

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lives of those who do not have your

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advantages then it will not only be your

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proud families who celebrate your

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existence but thousands and millions of

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people whose reality you have helped

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change we do not need magic to transform

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our world we carry all the power we need

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inside ourselves already we have the

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power to imagine better I'm nearly

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finished I have one last hope for you

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which is something that I already had at

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21 the friends with whom i sat on

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graduation day have been my friends for

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life they are my children's godparents

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the people to whom I've been able to

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turn in times of real trouble people who

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have been kind enough not to sue me when

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I took their names for Death Eaters

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at our graduation we were bound by

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enormous affection by our shared

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experience of a time that could never

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come again

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and of course by the knowledge that we

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held certain photographic evidence that

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would be exceptionally valuable if any

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of us ran for prime minister

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so today I wish you nothing better and

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similar friendships and tomorrow I hope

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that even if you remember not a single

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word of mine

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you remember those of Seneca another of

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those old Romans I met when I fled down

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the classics corridor in retreat from

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from career ladders in search of ancient

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wisdom as is a tale so is life not how

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long it is but how good it is is what

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matters I wish you all very good lives

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thank you very much