You know I am really stupid.
For years I have looked for the perfect pencil.
I have found very good one’s but never the perfect one.
And all the time it was not the pencils but me.
A pencil that is alright one day is no good another day.
For example yesterday I used a special pencil, soft and fine, and it floated over the paper most wonderfully.
So this morning I try the same kind.
And they crack on me.
Points break and all hell is let loose.
This is the day when I am stabbing the paper.
— John Steinbeck, letter to Pascal Covici, 1951 (via)