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 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 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 generations alive mother Writing a novel without being asked seems a bit like having a baby when you have nowhere to live. Lucy Ellmann women girl baby