“
My films are therapy for my debilitating depression. In institutions people weave baskets. I make films.
”
”
Woody Allen
“
Phury lit a blunt and eyed the sixteen cans of Aqua Net that were lined up on Butch and V's coffee table.
"What's doing with the hair spray? You boys going drag on us?"
Butch held up the lenght of PVC pipe he was punching a hole in.
"Potato launcher, my man. Big fun."
"Excuse me ?"
"Didn't you ever go to summer camp ?"
"Basket weaving and woodcarving are for humans. No offense, but we have better things to teach our youngs.
”
”
J.R. Ward (Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #3))
“
I'm going to Hell in a basket
Weaved in from my sins
Like wicker
With little Wiccan ties
As if I'm a witch
Accused
”
”
Matthew Little (Hell in a Basket: A small collection of personal poems.)
“
Apollo was the god of so many different things, even the Greeks got confused. They’d be like, “Hmm, I forgot who the god of basket weaving is. Must be Apollo!
”
”
Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson's Greek Gods)
“
Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. “Do you wish to buy any baskets?” he asked. “No, we do not want any,” was the reply. “What!” exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, “do you mean to starve us?” Having seen his industrious white neighbors so well off—that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by some magic, wealth and standing followed—he had said to himself: I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do. Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have done his part, and then it would be the white man’s to buy them. He had not discovered that it was necessary for him to make it worth the other’s while to buy them, or at least make him think that it was so, or to make something else which it would be worth his while to buy.
I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
“
I have hobbies," he says, smirking. "Physical pursuits: Base-jumping, hang-gliding, underwater basket-weaving.
”
”
Andrew Shaffer (Fifty-one Shades: A Parody (First Three Chapters))
“
The weaving of life between mother and daughter is just like the making of a basket. As time goes by, the interlacing takes shape and becomes stronger.
”
”
Haley Elizabeth Garwood (Ashes of Britannia (Warrior Queen, #3))
“
Her eyes held my grief, and her body gathered in my pain and knit it into herself as if she were an old marsh creature weaving baskets from rushes.
”
”
Kim Echlin (The Disappeared)
“
To care about weaving, to make weavings, is to be in touch with a long human tradition. We people have woven, first baskets and then cloth, for at least ten thousand years. This book will give you many ways to become connected with that tradition.
”
”
Phylis Morrison
“
The basket would never make her famous or end up in a museum. The best part of it was the making of it, sitting at the table weaving while outside the lake crashed into shore and the seagulls roosted somewhere for the night and two women stopped for a moment to watch.
”
”
Ellen Airgood (South of Superior)
“
The contradictions were apparent to Makhaya, and perhaps there was no greater crime as yet than all the lies Western civilization had told in the name of Jesus Christ. It seemed to Makhaya far preferable for Africa if it did without Christianity and Christian double-talk, fat priests, golden images, and looked around at all the thin naked old men who sat under trees weaving baskets with shaking hands. People could do without religions and Gods who died for the sins of the world and thereby left men without any feeling of self-responsibility for the crimes they committed. This seemed to Makhaya the greatest irony of Christianity. It meant that a white man could forever go on slaughtering black men simply because Jesus Christ would save him from his sins. Africa could do without a religion like that. 135
”
”
Bessie Head (When Rain Clouds Gather)
“
You didn’t have time to prepare the rhyming good-bye poem done in the style of Dr. Seuss? I do not like to basket weave. / I do not like when Sabin leaves. / I do not like—
”
”
Jessica Park (Restless Waters (Left Drowning, #2))
“
I’m typing away, wondering why I had that Pepsi Throwback at such a late hour. Caffeine is a compulsion. Art is an obsession. Writing is both.
It weaves in and out, this obsession, forming a basket, a basket I can hide in while pulling its lid over top; it shuts out the noise and normalcy of living. It shuts out the people and caffeinated relationships I love so well. Can you live with an artsy hermit? A sketchy-betchy, meditative, BabyBoomingPseudoHippie? Then short-term visits are in order.
”
”
Chila Woychik (On Being a Rat and Other Observations)
“
I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one's while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden and Other Writings)
“
THE INTEREST WITHOUT THE CAPITAL
The lover's food is the love of the bread;
no bread need be at hand:
no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence.
Lovers have nothing to do with with with existence;
lovers have the interest without the capital.
Without wings they fly around the world;
without hands they carry the polo ball off the field.
That dervish who caught the scent of Reality
used to weave basket even though his hand had been cut off.
Lover have pitched their tents in nonexistence:
they are of one quality and one essence, as nonexistence is.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Mathnawí of Jaláluʾddín Rúmí: Vols 1, 3, 5, Persian Text (set) (Gibb Memorial Trust))
“
Reasercher 101,
I do not long for the old, unreachable days. When I'm plugged in I can go anywhere, do and learn anything. Today, for instance, I visited a tiny library in Portugal. I learned how the Shakers weave baskets and I discovered my best friend in middle school loves blood-orange sorbet. Okay, I also learned that a certain pop star actually believes she's a fairy, an honest-to-goodness fairy from the fey people, but my point is access. Access to information. I don't even have to look out my window to see what the eather is like. I can have the weather delivered every morning to my phone. What could be better?
Sincerely,
Wife 22
Wife 22,
Getting caught in the rain?
All the best,
Researcher 101
”
”
Melanie Gideon (Wife 22)
“
Mma Ramotswe had a gift for the American woman, a basket which on her return journey from Bulawayo she had bought, on impulse, from a woman sitting by the side of the road in Francistown. The woman was desperate, and Mma Ramotswe, who did not need a basket, had bought it to help her. It was a traditional Botswana basket, with a design worked into the weaving.
"These little marks here are tears," she said. "The giraffe gives its tears to the women and they weave them into the basket."
The American woman took the basket politely, in the proper Botswana way of receiving a gift with both hands. How rude were people who took a gift with one hand, as if snatching it from the donor; she knew better.
You are very kind, Mma," she said. "But why did the giraffe give its tears?"
Mma Ramotswe shrugged; she had never thought about it. "I suppose that it means that we can all give something," she said. "A giraffe has nothing else to give--only tears." Did it mean that? she wondered. And for a moment she imagined that she saw a giraffe peering down through the trees, its strange stilt-borne body among the leaves; and its moist velvet cheeks and liquid eyes; and she thought of all the beauty that there was in Africa, and of the laughter, and the love.
The boy looked at the basket. "Is that true, Mma?"
Mma Ramotswe smiled. "I hope so," she said.
”
”
Alexander McCall Smith (Tears of the Giraffe (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #2))
“
I'm going to Hell in a basket
Weaved in from my sins,
Like wicker
With little Wiccan ties
As if I'm a witch
Accused.
”
”
Matthew Little (Hell in a Basket: A small collection of personal poems.)
“
He imagined a town called A. Around the communal fire they’re shaping arrowheads and carving tributes o the god of the hunt. One day some guys with spears come over the ridge, perform all kinds of meanness, take over, and the new guys rename the town B. Whereupon they hang around the communal fire sharpening arrowheads and carving tributes to the god of the hunt. Some climatic tragedy occurs — not carving the correct tributary figurines probably — and the people of B move farther south, where word is there’s good fishing, at least according to those who wander to B just before being cooked for dinner. Another tribe of unlucky souls stops for the night in the emptied village, looks around at the natural defenses provided by the landscape, and decides to stay awhile. It’s a while lot better than their last digs — what with the lack of roving tigers and such — plus it comes with all the original fixtures. they call the place C, after their elder, who has learned that pretending to talk to spirits is a fun gag that gets you stuff. Time passes. More invasions, more recaptures, D, E, F, and G. H stands as it is for a while. That ridge provides some protection from the spring floods, and if you keep a sentry up there you can see the enemy coming for miles. Who wouldn’t want to park themselves in that real estate? The citizens of H leave behind cool totems eventually toppled by the people of I, whose lack of aesthetic sense if made up for by military acumen. J, K, L, adventures in thatched roofing, some guys with funny religions from the eastern plains, long-haired freaks from colder climes, the town is burned to the ground and rebuilt by still more fugitives. This is the march of history. And conquest and false hope. M falls to plague, N to natural disaster — same climatic tragedy as before, apparently it’s cyclical. Mineral wealth makes it happen for the O people, and the P people are renowned for their basket weaving. No one ever — ever — mentions Q. The dictator names the city after himself; his name starts with the letter R. When the socialists come to power they spend a lot of time painting over his face, which is everywhere. They don’t last. Nobody lasts because there’s always somebody else. They all thought they owned it because they named it and that was their undoing. They should have kept the place nameless. They should have been glad for their good fortune, and left it at that. X, Y, Z.
”
”
Colson Whitehead (Apex Hides the Hurt)
“
He’s something of a whiz with snares, rigging them to bent saplings so they pull the kill out of the reach of predators, balancing logs on delicate stick triggers, weaving inescapable baskets to capture fish.
”
”
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
“
I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth anyone's while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
“
I wonder how, among the Fremont, mothers and daughters shared their world. Did they walk side by side along the lake edge? What stories did they tell while weaving strips of bulrush into baskets? How did daughters bury their mothers and exercise their grief? What were the secret rituals of women? I feel certain they must have been tied to birds.
”
”
Terry Tempest Williams (Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place)
“
I wanted to talk to you about Colonel Friedrich. I did not think I would get the chance to meet him.” “My apologies for the experience.” Marie laughed. “Cinderella! At the very least, you must admit he makes a better basket than you.” “Thank you for the reminder. I shall have to keep that in mind if I ever decide to pursue basket-weaving as a livelihood.
”
”
K.M. Shea (Cinderella and the Colonel (Timeless Fairy Tales, #3))
“
The prayers we weave into the matching of the socks, the working of our hands, the toiling of the hours, they survive fire. It’s the things unseen that survive fire. Love. Relationship. Worship. Prayer. Communion. All Things Unseen—and Centered in Christ. It doesn’t matter so much what we leave unaccomplished—but that our priority was things unseen. Again, today, that’s always the call: slay the idol of the seen. Slay the idol of focusing on only what can be seen, lauded, noticed. Today, a thousand times again today, I will preach His truth to this soul prone to wander, that wants nothing more than the gracious smile of our Father: “Unseen. Things Unseen. Invest in Things Unseen. The Unexpected Priority is always Things Unseen. ” “Pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret . . .” (Matt. 6:6 NIV). “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). It’s the things unseen that are the most important things. Though the seen product of the baskets may have gone up in a flame of smoke, it
”
”
Jon Bloom (Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God's Promises)
“
Cinderella frowned as she wrestled thin willow branches into place, trying her hand at making a wicker basket. One of the maids had left her with a sample basket and pattern, as well as several started bases, but Cinderella’s basket was lopsided, and the branch ends poked out like twigs in a bird’s nest. “Are you trying to make it look like that, or is it supposed to resemble this one?” Colonel Friedrich asked, holding up the sample basket. Cinderella glared at him. “Don’t you have work to do?” She savagely stabbed the willow in the weaving pattern. “I’ve
”
”
K.M. Shea (Cinderella and the Colonel (Timeless Fairy Tales, #3))
“
Whether you're a bride or a birthday boy, your options are much the same. Cake comes in chocolate, yellow, or white. Frosting comes in chocolate or vanilla buttercream, or you can opt for whipped cream. Fillings are either chocolate or vanilla custard, fresh bananas, or strawberries or raspberries in season. For birthday cakes, you can have either flowers or balloons in your choice of colors. For wedding cakes, you can add either fondant or marzipan covering, or either smooth or basket-weave buttercream, in white or ivory, with either pearl-like dots or ribbony swags made of frosting, and fondant faux flowers are extra.
”
”
Stacey Ballis (Wedding Girl)
“
Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. “Do you wish to buy any baskets?” he asked. “No, we do not want any,” was the reply. “What!” exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, “do you mean to starve us?” Having seen his industrious white neighbors so well off—that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by some magic, wealth and standing followed—he had said to himself: I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do. Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have done his part, and then it would be the white man’s to buy them. He had not discovered that it was necessary for him to make it worth the other’s while to buy them, or at least make him think that it was so, or to make something else which it would be worth his while to buy.
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
“
To me, the forest is simply green and vast, but Huia knows exactly what she's looking for and points things out from a distance. But slowly I learn. I distinguish devil's club and stinging nettles and salmonberry. I spot the hummingbirds that dart and quiver around pink flowers. I spy a patch of fiddleheads and start plucking before Huia warns me to take only a few so the plant can keep growing for next season. I am the student.
The fiddleheads are aptly named, shaped just like the top of a violin, and soon Huia declares her basket "full enough" of them. We dawdle through the forest, aimlessly it seems to me, though she appears to know exactly where she is, pausing every now and then to watch birds and pick flowers. We sit on a log that's sprouting soft, hopeful ferns, a "nurse log," Huia calls it, and I show her how to make a crown of daisies. She gets me to make the slits in the stems with my nails and then weaves one for me too.
”
”
Hannah Tunnicliffe (Season of Salt and Honey)
“
Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. “Do you wish to buy any baskets?” he asked. “No, we do not want any,” was the reply. “What!” exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, “do you mean to starve us?” Having seen his industrious white neighbors so well off—that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by some magic, wealth and standing followed—he had said to himself: I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do. Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have done his part, and then it would be the white man’s to buy them. He had not discovered that it was necessary for him to make it worth the other’s while to buy them, or at least make him think that it was so, or to make something else which it would be worth his while to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?
”
”
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
“
I awake with a start, shaking the cobwebs of sleep from my mind. It’s pitch-dark out, the wind howling. It takes a couple seconds to get my bearings, to realize I’m in my parents’ bed, Ryder beside me, on his side, facing me. Our hands are still joined, though our fingers are slack now.
“Hey, you,” he says sleepily. “That one was loud, huh?”
“What was?”
“Thunder. Rattled the windows pretty bad.”
“What time is it?”
“Middle of the night, I’d say.”
I could check my phone, but that would require sitting up and letting go of his hand. Right now, I don’t want to do that. I’m too comfortable. “Have you gotten any sleep at all?” I ask him, my mouth dry and cottony.
“I think I drifted off for a little bit. Till…you know…the thunder started up again.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“It should calm down some when the eye moves through.”
“If there’s still an eye by the time it gets here. The center of circulation usually starts breaking up once it goes inland.” Yeah, all those hours watching the Weather Channel occasionally come in handy.
He gives my hand a gentle squeeze. “Wow, maybe you should consider studying meteorology. You know, if the whole film-school thing doesn’t work out for you.”
“I could double major,” I shoot back.
“I bet you could.”
“What are you going to study?” I ask, curious now. “I mean, besides football. You’ve got to major in something, don’t you?”
He doesn’t answer right away. I wonder what’s going through his head--why he’s hesitating.
“Astrophysics,” he says at last.
“Yeah, right.” I roll my eyes. “Fine, if you don’t want to tell me…”
“I’m serious. Astrophysics for undergrad. And then maybe…astronomy.”
“What, you mean in graduate school?”
He just nods.
“You’re serious? You’re going to major in something that tough? I mean, most football players major in something like phys ed or underwater basket weaving, don’t they?”
“Greg McElroy majored in business marketing,” he says with a shrug, ignoring my jab.
“Yeah, but…astrophysics? What’s the point, if you’re just going to play pro football after you graduate anyway?”
“Who says I want to play pro football?” he asks, releasing my hand.
“Are you kidding me?” I sit up, staring at him in disbelief. He’s the best quarterback in the state of Mississippi. I mean, football is what he does…It’s his life. Why wouldn’t he play pro ball?
He rolls over onto his back, staring at the ceiling, his arms folded behind his head. “Right, I’m just some dumb jock.”
“Oh, please. Everyone knows you’re the smartest kid in our class. You always have been. I’d give anything for it to come as easily to me as it does to you.”
He sits up abruptly, facing me. “You think it’s easy for me? I work my ass off. You have no idea what I’m working toward. Or what I’m up against,” he adds, shaking his head.
“Probably not,” I concede. “Anyway, if anyone can major in astrophysics and play SEC ball at the same time, you can. But you might want to lose the attitude.”
He drops his head into his hands. “I’m sorry, Jem. It’s just…everyone has all these expectations. My parents, the football coach--”
“You think I don’t get that? Trust me. I get it better than just about anyone.”
He lets out a sigh. “I guess our families have pretty much planned out our lives for us, haven’t they?”
“They think they have, that’s for sure,” I say.
”
”
Kristi Cook (Magnolia (Magnolia Branch, #1))
“
The Ten Ways to Evaluate a Market provide a back-of-the-napkin method you can use to identify the attractiveness of any potential market. Rate each of the ten factors below on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is terrible and 10 fantastic. When in doubt, be conservative in your estimate: Urgency. How badly do people want or need this right now? (Renting an old movie is low urgency; seeing the first showing of a new movie on opening night is high urgency, since it only happens once.) Market Size. How many people are purchasing things like this? (The market for underwater basket-weaving courses is very small; the market for cancer cures is massive.) Pricing Potential. What is the highest price a typical purchaser would be willing to spend for a solution? (Lollipops sell for $0.05; aircraft carriers sell for billions.) Cost of Customer Acquisition. How easy is it to acquire a new customer? On average, how much will it cost to generate a sale, in both money and effort? (Restaurants built on high-traffic interstate highways spend little to bring in new customers. Government contractors can spend millions landing major procurement deals.) Cost of Value Delivery. How much will it cost to create and deliver the value offered, in both money and effort? (Delivering files via the internet is almost free; inventing a product and building a factory costs millions.) Uniqueness of Offer. How unique is your offer versus competing offerings in the market, and how easy is it for potential competitors to copy you? (There are many hair salons but very few companies that offer private space travel.) Speed to Market. How soon can you create something to sell? (You can offer to mow a neighbor’s lawn in minutes; opening a bank can take years.) Up-front Investment. How much will you have to invest before you’re ready to sell? (To be a housekeeper, all you need is a set of inexpensive cleaning products. To mine for gold, you need millions to purchase land and excavating equipment.) Upsell Potential. Are there related secondary offers that you could also present to purchasing customers? (Customers who purchase razors need shaving cream and extra blades as well; buy a Frisbee and you won’t need another unless you lose it.) Evergreen Potential. Once the initial offer has been created, how much additional work will you have to put in in order to continue selling? (Business consulting requires ongoing work to get paid; a book can be produced once and then sold over and over as is.) When you’re done with your assessment, add up the score. If the score is 50 or below, move on to another idea—there are better places to invest your energy and resources. If the score is 75 or above, you have a very promising idea—full speed ahead. Anything between 50 and 75 has the potential to pay the bills but won’t be a home run without a huge investment of energy and resources.
”
”
Josh Kaufman (The Personal MBA)
“
Failure is an event, not a person. That is, if you try and fail at something it doesn’t mean that YOU are a failure. It just means that either you have a little learning or growing to do, or that the thing you’re trying to do truly cannot be done. If you’re trying to sell Underwater Basket Weaving lessons and no one is buying your ten-lesson package, it may well mean that you should try your hand at selling lemonade instead.
”
”
Kurt Frankenberg (Get Paid TODAY!: Structure Your Small Business Startup to be Profitable from DAY ONE (Shoestring101 Series Book 1))
“
The gypsies, with whom it is obvious that she must have been in secret communication before the revolution, seem to have looked upon her as one of themselves (which is always the highest compliment a people can pay), and her dark hair and dark complexion bore out the belief that she was, by birth, one of them, and had been snatched by an English Duke from a nut tree when she was a baby and taken to that barbarous land where people live in houses because they are too feeble and diseased to stand the open air. Thus, though in many ways inferior to them, they were willing to help her to become more like them; taught her their arts of cheese-making and basket-weaving, their science of stealing and bird-snaring, and were even prepared to consider letting her marry among them. But Orlando had contracted in England some of the customs or diseases (whatever you choose to consider them) which cannot, it seems, be expelled... The elders, however, who had seen more of foreigners than they had, became suspicious. They noticed that Orlando often sat for whole hours doing nothing whatever, except look here and then there; they would come upon her on some hilltop staring straight in front of her, no matter whether the goats were gazing or straying. They began to suspect that she had other beliefs than their own, and the older men and women thought it probable that she had fallen into the clutches of the vilest and cruelest among all the Gods, which is Nature,
”
”
Orlando, Virginia Dalloway
“
He took Cinderella’s basket from her and passed her his. Cinderella accepted the exchange and started weaving willow branches into his neater basket as he set about fixing hers. “He
”
”
K.M. Shea (Cinderella and the Colonel (Timeless Fairy Tales, #3))
“
Truly it is none of my affair. I will always advocate for lovers to follow their hearts.” “What do you think, Cinderella?” he asked. Cinderella stared at the basket in her hands. Colonel Friedrich’s beginner but well-constructed base was still intact, but the layers she’d added were lopsided and filled with holes. “I think I have no talent for basket weaving.” He chuckled as he set his basket aside.
”
”
K.M. Shea (Cinderella and the Colonel (Timeless Fairy Tales, #3))
“
I’ve just had breakfast.” The doorbell rang. “Ooooh!” said Polly, peering furtively out the window. “What fun. It looks like a market researcher!” “Right,” said my mother in a very military tone. “Let’s see how long we can keep him before he runs out screaming. I’ll pretend to have mild dementia, and you can complain about your sciatica in German. We’ll try to beat our personal Market-Researcher Containment record of two hours and twelve minutes.” I shook my head sadly. “I wish you two would grow up.” “You are so judgmental, daughter dear,” scolded my mother. “When you reach our age and level of physical decrepitude, you’ll take your entertainment wherever you can find it. Now, be off with you.” And they shooed me into the kitchen while I mumbled something about how remedial basket weaving, whist drives or daytime soaps would probably suit them better. Mind you, inflicting mental torture on market researchers kept them busy, I suppose.
”
”
Jasper Fforde (First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5))
“
Inventions cast moral shadows, she well knew, better than most, in fact. But... could simple convenience prove so perniciously evil? The action of doing things, laborious things, repetitive things, such actions invited ritual, and with ritual came meaning that expanded beyond the accomplishment of the deed itself. From such ritual self-identity emerged, and with it self-worth. Even so, to make life easier must possess some inherent value, mustn't it?
Easier. Nothing earned, the language of recompense fading away until as lost as that ancient tribe's cherished tongue. Worth dimished, value transformed into arbitrariness, oh gods below, and I was so bold as to speak of freedom! She kicked her horse forward until she came alongside the Toblakai. "But is that all? Karsa Orlong! I ask you, is that all?"
"Among my people," he said after a moment, "the day is filled, as is the night."
"With what? Weaving baskets, trapping fish, sharpening swords, training horses, cooking, eating, sewing, fucking—"
"Telling stories, mocking fools who do and say foolish things, yes, all that. You must have visited there, then?"
"I have not."
A faint smile, then gone. "There are things to do. And, always, witch, ways of cheating them. But no-one truly in their lives is naïve."
"Truly in their lives?"
"Exulting in the moment, witch, does not require wild dancing."
"And so, without those rituals..."
"The young warriors go looking for war.
”
”
Steven Erikson (The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6))
“
women are better for each other
than sunlight is for plants
women are the powerful reeds
that weave the basket of life
and make it strong enough
to bare the persistent burdens of being.
”
”
Anna Victor (in the way.)
“
The women were also responsible for milling, dehusking, and winnowing the rice into an edible product. To achieve this, they combined West African technology with the resources available in South Carolina. They built the tools and engineered complex machinery. Instead of using palm leaves to separate rice from its hull, they used Carolina sweetgrass to weave baskets for tossing the rice into the air. They milled the rice with their handmade mortar and pestles and built the tools to turn the land.
”
”
Michael Harriot (Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America)
“
Young Tala, the storytellers weave an intricate pattern on the basket of life. They carry our stories through time and place, a thread of juncus fiber connecting the young and old over thousands of moonrises. But there is one story that few people know, its mystery never forgotten."
Carina Theron, The Tribes of Chelsea
”
”
Carina Theron (The Tribes of Chelsea)
“
THE INTEREST WITHOUT THE CAPITAL
The lover's food is the love of the bread;
no bread need be at hand:
no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence.
Lovers have nothing to do with existence;
lovers have the interest without the capital.
Without wings they fly around the world;
without hands they carry the polo ball off the field.
That dervish who caught the scent of Reality
used to weave basket even though his hand had been cut off.
Lover have pitched their tents in nonexistence:
they are of one quality and one essence, as nonexistence is.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Mathnawi of Jalalud'din Rumi, Vol. VI (Containing the Translation of the Fifth & Sixth Books))
“
You can smash a snow globe with a ball-peen hammer and be disappointed that the glass is actually plastic and the snow actually ground-up Styrofoam. • You can laminate anything by winding it in plastic wrap before a five-minute tumble on Cotton in the dryer. • You can microwave a lightbulb for nearly twenty beautiful seconds as it turns in there like a pink comet before it finally goes supernova. • You can safely remove your Helmet and whack your head repeatedly on the drywall, weaving an orange velvet into your vision, before you manage to leave a dent. • You can cover a wall dent by hanging a masterpiece over it and claiming that you need the work at eye level to properly appreciate it. • You can simulate immortality by sticking a rubberhandled flathead screwdriver directly into the outlet and only trip a breaker. • You can ride the laundry basket down the carpeted stairs like a mine cart four times until it catches and ejects you to the bottom, where you strike your elbow and it swells red as a hot-water bottle. • You can safely light the fluff on your sweatpants with a barbecue lighter and send flame rolling over your legs like poured blue water, leaving a crispy black stubble. • You can halt a fan if you thrust your hand into the blades bravely—only when you hesitate will your knuckles be rapped. • You can stick the chilly steel tube of the vacuum to your belly and generate a hideous yet painless bruise, and these pulsating circles when placed carefully can form an Olympic symbol that lasts well into a second week. Of course his mother’s catching wind of any of
”
”
Michael Christie (If I Fall, If I Die)
“
too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one's while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.
”
”
Anonymous
“
Have you decided on your major?” “I want to be a rodeo clown.” He just looks at me. “How about underwater basket weaving? Is that a thing?
”
”
Kyla Stone (Beneath the Skin)
“
Isabell Ides was 101 years old when she died last June. A Makah Indian, a member of a whale-hunting people, she lived in the last house on the last road on the farthest northwest tip of the United States. Isabell was known far and wide because she loved and taught Makah culture and language. Hundreds of people learned to weave baskets under her hands. Several generations learned words in their language from her lips. Young mothers brought her their alder-smoked salmon. After chewing a bit, she could tell whether their wood was too dry. Archaeologists brought her newly excavated 3,000-year-old baskets, and she could identify what the baskets were, how they were made, and how they had been used. “It’s like losing a library,” an anthropologist said at her funeral. Isabell also taught Sunday School at the Assembly of God church on the reservation. She attributed her long life to her Christian faith.
”
”
Ralph Winter (Perspectives on the World Christian Movement)
“
She had baked a simple round vanilla sponge cake in two layers with crimson icing between the layers. Then she had coated the cake with a vibrant turquoise blue icing. Across the top she had created a loose, open, basket-weave design in bright yellow bordered with piped yellow stars alternating with crimson stars, and she was now finishing off by piping scrolls of crimson around the base of the sides. It would be a handsome cake: beautiful, but at the same time masculine.
”
”
Gaile Parkin (Baking Cakes in Kigali)
“
Lightships were floating lighthouses in the nineteenth century, stationed at certain places around the island to warn passing ships of dangerous shoals so they didn’t get lost in the fog and run aground. Crews stayed out in the lightships for six months at a time. Needless to say they didn’t have television, so they did craft work. Some made sailor’s valentines, intricate little combinations of shells put together to form a pretty picture. Some made lightship baskets, which involved lots of patient weaving of canes.
”
”
Nancy Thayer (Beachcombers)
“
This body was shaped by the need to find food, build shelter, and weave fiber into baskets and clothing. It didn’t evolve for keyboards, electric lights, or whizzing automobiles.
”
”
Woniya Dawn Thibeault (Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey)
“
Apollo was the god of so many different things, even the Greeks got confused. They'd be like, "Hmm, I forgot who the god of basket weaving is. Must be Apollo!
”
”
Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson's Greek Gods)
“
Alis finished my plait, and I jumped from the bench before she could weave in little flowers from the basket she'd brought. I would have lived up to my namesake were it not for the effects of poverty, but I'd never particularly cared. Beauty didn't mean anything in the forest.
”
”
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1))
“
She watched halflings at work creating ornate wineskins from goat’s hide in full view of the public, and she was delighted by the beautiful dolls on display at a stall run by a pair of half-elves. She looked at wares made of malachite and jasper, which a gruff, gloomy gnome was offering for sale. She inspected the swords in a swordsmith’s workshop with interest and the eye of an expert. She watched girls weaving wicker baskets and concluded that there was nothing worse than work.
”
”
Andrzej Sapkowski (The Time of Contempt (The Witcher #2))
“
True basket weaving was, and remains, the original 3D printing.
”
”
Alex Langlands (Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts)
“
A lover’s food is the love of bread,
not the bread. No one who really loves,
loves existence. Lovers have nothing to do with existence.
They collect the interest without the capital. No wings, yet they fly all over the world. No hands, but they carry the polo ball from the field. That dervish got a sniff of reality.
Now he weaves baskets of pure vision.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Essential Rumi)
“
he has discovered that every aspect of life is a strange gravitational system of people-planets, all orbiting unlikely suns such as golf clubs, theatres, and basket-weaving classes, falling prey to black holes like infidelity and penury. Or just fading away into space, alone.
”
”
Nick Harkaway (Angelmaker)
“
There were no free spaces in the school’s parking lot. Adam ended up parking illegally—live on the edge—and hurrying toward the school. The side door was locked. Adam had never done this before—visited Corinne during a school day—but he knew that all schools had taken up stringent security protocols in the wake of shootings and other violence. He circled toward the front door. It was also locked. Adam pressed the intercom button. A camera whirred down on him, and the weary female voice that could only belong to someone working in a school’s main office asked him who he was. He put on his most disarming smile. “It’s Adam Price. Corinne’s husband.” The door buzzed. Adam pushed through the doors. A sign read CHECK IN AT THE MAIN DESK. He wasn’t sure what to do here. If he signed in, they would want to know why and probably buzz down to the classroom. He didn’t want that. He wanted to surprise Corinne or, at the very least, not need to explain to the staff why he was here. The office was on the right. Adam was about to turn left and just hurry down the opposite way when he saw the armed security guard. He aimed his most disarming smile at the guard. The guard offered one back. No choice now. He’d have to go to the main office. He veered through the door and weaved past a few local moms. There was a huge laundry basket in the middle of the floor where parents dropped off lunches for their kids who forgot to bring them in the morning. The
”
”
Harlan Coben (The Stranger)