This post is about the key takeaways from J.K. Rowlings Harvard Commencement Address in 2008 where she talks about the power and responsibility of imagination.
In the second half of her speech, Rowling spoke not about imagination as creativity alone, but as a moral force—one that carries both power and responsibility.
Imagination enables empathy.
Rowling argues that imagination is not simply the source of invention and innovation; it is the uniquely human capacity that allows us to empathize with experiences we have never personally lived. Through imagination, we can understand the suffering, hopes, and realities of others—especially those very different from ourselves.
Empathy leads to action.
Drawing on her early work at Amnesty International, Rowling illustrates how imagination, when exercised as empathy, can mobilize people to act on behalf of others. Ordinary individuals, moved by the stories of strangers, collectively save lives and challenge injustice. This, she suggests, is imagination at its most transformative.
Choosing not to imagine has consequences.
Rowling is clear that imagination is morally neutral—it can be used to understand and to manipulate. But she warns that willfully refusing to imagine the lives of others is not harmless. Apathy and indifference, she argues, enable cruelty to persist. When we choose not to empathize, we silently collude with injustice.
Inner choices shape outer realities.
Quoting Plutarch—“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality”—Rowling emphasizes that our internal values, thoughts, and imaginations inevitably influence the world around us. Simply by existing, we affect others’ lives; those with education, privilege, and influence carry even greater responsibility.
Privilege brings obligation.
Addressing the Harvard graduates directly, Rowling reminds them that their education, status, and nationality give them outsized influence. How they vote, live, protest, and advocate matters far beyond their immediate circles. With privilege comes the obligation to use imagination in service of those without power or voice.
We already possess the power to change the world.
Rowling closes with a powerful assertion: we do not need magic to change the world. The ability to imagine better futures—and to act on those imaginings—is already within us.
Kathleen