Obviously, I did not start my Test career too well. With the bat, I was probably not quite ready to play at that stage. I was happy to go back to first-class system and learn my game a bit more, honing my skills, particularly my defence and patience.

For me, most writing consists of siphoning out useless pre-story matter, cutting and cutting and cutting, what seems to be endless rewriting, and what is entailed in all that is patience, and waiting, and false starts, and dead ends, and really, in a way, nerve.

The Queen is frequently on her own, walking the dogs, riding her horses, playing patience, completing a jigsaw, sorting her photograph albums, watching television, phoning friends, doing the Telegraph crossword. Is she neglected? Is she suffering? Or does she simply understand her man?

When it comes right down to it, developing a critical sensibility about parenting isn't really about disapproval; it's about honing your own sensibilities, figuring out how you want to parent.

If someone thinks, 'I'll spend the off season working on my fitness and I'll come back a better cricketer,' I don't think that's enough. You need to spend a lot of time working on your skills and honing your skills.

A lot of things have changed since the days of Flickr. Facebook has concentrated the sociality of the Internet within its blue borders, like a Walmart siphoning off the mom-and-pop shops that formerly comprised the Internet's gathering places. Communication, in the age of mobile dominance, has become, of necessity, shorter and snack-sized.

That's why I do this music business thing, it's communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.

Some bands today have the experience of really working together and honing their craft. And other bands are very much like, 'I just got a guitar for Christmas, let's start a band.' And you can hear the difference.

Inspiring deep, passionate and extraordinary love in a man is the art of honing your sensual skills in order to create DREAMS ECSTASY??

[God] deposits a dream of what we can be for Him, a dream that acts as our internal honing device.

They think they can make fuel from horse manure - now I don't know if your car will be able to get 30 miles to the gallon but it's sure gonna put a stop to siphoning.

That's why I do this music business thing it's communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.