Famous Dyslexics

Track and field former US track and field athlete If I wasn't dyslexic, I probably wouldn't have won the Games. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily and I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work."

"Dyslexia is not due to lack of intelligence, its a lack of access. Its like if you are dyslexic,you have all the information you need, but find it harder to process."

"The challenge of dyslexia - the challenge of climbing that mountain - is something that you can make your own, and make it a reason to be a winner in life."

"Being diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 60 was," like the last puzzle part in a tremendous mystery that I ve kept to myself all these years"

Bollywood actor , voiceover artist and photographer

"The looks, the stares, the giggles... I just wanted to show everybody that I could do better, and that I could read."

As a lad of nine, he did not know the letters of the alphabet. He was thought of as dull and backward. He entered Davidson College but his grades were mediocre. I was one of the 'puzzle children' myself - a dyslexic. And I still have a hard time reading today. Accept the fact that you have a problem. Refuse to feel sorry for yourself. You have a challenge; never quit!-Famous Fridays - Nelson RockefellerA letter to dyslexic children from Vice President Nelson Rockefeller

George S. Patton: World War II American general. General Patton led the world to victory against the Nazis. When he was twelve years old, he could not read yet and he remained deficient in reading all his life. However, he could memorize entire lectures, which was how he got through school-."Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."

"It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was... an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day"

He was diagnosed as dyslexic at seven, and tried to hide his learning disability from the other children at school. He calls himself "functionally illiterate". "I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read".

He wrote his notes backwards. Leonardo's spelling is also considered erratic and quite strange. He started many projects but did not finish many. When it came to drawing illustrations, Leonardo's work is detailed and precise and produced extraordinary art work showing his inventive genius."Your brain is much better than you think; just use it!"

Picasso was described by his teachers as, "having difficulty differentiating the orientation of the letters". "Don't think I didn't try[learning at school]. I tried hard. I would start but immediately be lost. "For being a bad student I was banished to the 'calaboose' - a bare cell with whitewashed walls and a bench to sit on."