I was sorting through my mother's things. All the letters from friends had to go. I don't know why she kept them, and now they meant nothing to anybody alive. Each generation flushes the toilet for the last. Lucy Ellmann More Quotes by Lucy Ellmann More Quotes From Lucy Ellmann Men like war: they do not hold much sway over birth, so they make up for it with death. Unlike women, men menstruate by shedding other people's blood. Lucy Ellmann men war peace Writing a novel without being asked seems a bit like having a baby when you have nowhere to live. Lucy Ellmann women girl baby The secret idea she was forming of an afterlife gave her the foothold she needed to endure the agonies to come, a newfound courage and optimism which found instant expression through SHOPPING. Lucy Ellmann agony shopping expression