Thank-you notes from famous people: Obama thanks a Canadian

Even the world's high profile personalities occasionally take the time to handwrite thank-you notes. Their mothers must have taught them well.

DailyGood lists 11 thank-you notes from famous people, including ones from Audrey Hepburn, John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe. "It arrived, I drank it and I was gayer," Monroe wrote of the champagne gift.

Lennon's note to Pam Grier thanked her for not hitting him when he had been rude at a Smothers Brothers event.

Among the notes is one to a Canadian: U.S. President Barack Obama wrote to Canadian author Yann Martel, thanking him for his now-iconic novel Life of Pi.

Reuters reported in 2009 that the president was reading the novel with his daughter Malia.

Obama wrote:

"My daughter and I just finished reading Life of Pi together. Both of us agreed we prefer the story with animals. It is a lovely book — an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling. Thank you."

Martel, moved by the fan mail, wrote:

"What amazes me is the gratuity of it. As you would know, there is a large measure of calculation in what public figures do. But here, what does he gain? I'm not a U.S. citizen. In no way can I be of help to President Obama. Clearly he did it for personal reasons, as a reader and as a father. And in two lines, what an insightful analysis of Life of Pi. Bless him, bless him."

Read all of the letters here.

Do you write thank-you notes?