“Hermione was very easy to create because she is based almost entirely on myself at the age of 11. She is really a caricature of me.”

— J.K. Rowling, Interview by Margaret Weir, Salon (13 March 1999)

About J.K. Rowling

Born 1965

British author of the 'Harry Potter' series, who gave the Harvard commencement address 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure' in 2008.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”

“It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies; but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”

“Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.”

“I've found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

“There be none of Beauty's daughters with a magic like thee; and like music on the waters is thy sweet voice to me.”

“Whate'er I may have been, or am, doth rest between Heaven and myself; I shall not choose a mortal to be my mediator.”

“Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.”

“Reciprocity is a matter of keeping the gift in motion through self-perpetuating cycles of giving and receiving.”