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No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.

Does not all experience crumble in the end to mere literary material?

I started off on stage because it was the only work I could get. I have not been back for 11 years. I think any stage experience is good experience, as far as being an actor is concerned.

No one ever pretended that shopping for anything is a rational experience. If it were, would there be Fluffernutter? Laceless sneakers? Porkpie hats? Would the Chia Pet even exist?

My own life has in some ways been a decades-long tour of the sibling experience. I have full sibs, I have half-sibs, and for a time I had step-sibs.

There are a lot of obstacles in the way of our understanding animal intelligence - not the least being that we can not even agree whether nonhuman species are conscious. We accept that chimps and dolphins experience awareness we like to think dogs and cats do. But what about mice and newts? What about a fly? Is anything going on there at all?

As with real reading, the ability to comprehend subtlety and complexity comes only with time and a lot of experience. If you do not adequately acquire those skills, moving out into the real world of real people can actually become quite scary.

Bringing an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may help the young Arab generation to realise their aspirations. Israel is more than willing to offer our experience in building a modern economy in spite of limited resources to the whole region.

I like directors who have worked as actors. They know the experience.

Yes, I have listened to just a few audiobooks - but hope to listen to more. I have wanted to investigate how my own books sound in this format and find the experience of listening, and not reading, quite fascinating.

There is no wrong way to experience a film.

I wouldn't say I am a very original thinker, but if I have a good experience with something, I will want to take it further or adapt it in some way.

For me, titles are either a natural two-second experience or stressful enough to give you an ulcer. If they do not pop out perfect on the first try, they can be really hard to repair. Or, worse, if the author thinks they pop out perfect, but the publishing house does not agree, it is difficult to shift gears. And then? Then you go insane.

Stories have always been the things that entertain me and make me feel happy and sad and move me and give me the experience of being able to live many lives in one lifetime. It is the best thing about being alive.

If you are out there stressing on your pro day, then you are not going to perform well, so I plan on having a little fun. Play a little music while we are out there throwing the football, have everybody tapping their toes and bobbing their head and just go out there and make the most of the experience.

I find increasingly that the more extreme are the things going on in your life, the more cultural reference points fail you. More mythical reference points actually help, and you realise that is what myths are for. It is for human beings to process their experience in extremis.

I think being a parent is the most challenging thing you do. That is why we are here. It is at the heart of what it is to be a human being. It is the ultimate experience because it questions everything about who you are. But it is difficult.

If one area I felt it was a tough election was I couldn't see my young son and I couldn't see my wife a lot, but apart from that for her also it was an experience.

In fact the experience at Oxford has really helped me later in life.

I was quite able at the insignificant work I did in MI6, but absolutely dysfunctional in my domestic life. I had no experience of fatherhood. I had no example of marital bliss or the family unit.