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)