"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere." - Joyce Meyer

Thomas Edison had his pencils specially made by Eagle Pencil. Each pencil was three inches long, was thicker than standard pencils and had softer graphite than was normally available.

Vladimir Nabokov rewrote everything he had ever published, usually several times, in pencil.

John Steinbeck was an obsessive pencil user and is said to have used as many as 60 a day. His novel East of Eden took more than 300 pencils to write.

Vincent van Gogh used only Faber pencils as they were "superior to Carpenters pencils, a capital black and most agreeable".

Johnny Carson regularly played with pencils at his Tonight Show desk. These pencils were specially made with erasers at both ends to avoid on-set accidents.

Roald Dahl used only pencils with yellow casing to write his books. He had 6 sharpened pencils ready at the beginning of each day and only when all 6 pencils became unusable did he resharpen them.