“We are each the authors of our own lives”

“We are each the authors of our own lives” is the principle Paul McGill once gave Emma Harte to understand character, responsibility, and blame. Its significance lies in Emma’s later use of it: as she faces her children’s conduct, the idea helps her stop treating their failings as proof of her own culpability and choose what to do next.

Origin and Meaning

Paul’s statement joined two claims: people live with what they themselves have made, and neither blame nor praise can simply be transferred to someone else. He expressed the idea to Emma in the fuller formulation, “We are each the authors of our own lives, Emma. We live in what we have created. There is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades.” The “authors” image makes character an act of creation, while the paired references to blame and accolades frame self-determination as a responsibility, not merely a freedom.

Emma’s Changing View of Motherhood

When Emma was younger, signs in her children’s characters alarmed her, and she blamed herself. She believed she had neglected some, loved others too intensely, and indulged and spoiled them. With age, she came to think that each person was responsible for their own character and, in turn, their destiny. Remembering Paul’s words helped her make peace with the mixed and turbulent emotions she felt about her children: she stopped agonizing over their weaknesses and faults as though she alone had caused them.

Recall and Consequence

The maxim returns when Emma is burdened by the past and by immediate family concerns, including Paula’s continuing interest in Jim Fairley. Recalling it, she rejects guilt and judges her children’s actions as driven by their own greed and misplaced ambitions. The change is visible in her manner: she rises, crosses to the window, and returns to her desk with renewed firmness. She then calls Gaye Sloane back and asks her to book three places on a flight to London that night. The remembered words thus become more than a retrospective explanation of Emma’s maternal feelings; they help her distinguish care from responsibility for other adults’ choices and move from self-reproach to action.