I’m inspired by these people and their work. They’re listed in no particular order, and for the most part they are teachers, artists, and storytellers.

Joseph Campbell

Paul Durcan

Lola Montez

E.B. White

Mihalyi Czikszentmihalyi

Peter Kramer

Sean Ahern

Joan Didion

Alistair Cooke

Tim Vetter

Steve Earle

Elvis Costello

Stewart Brand

John Lennon

Alan Ross

Kurt Andersen

Dervla Murphy

Sean O’Faolain

Jonathan Ives

Lee Thorn

Serge Gainsbourg

Edward Abbey

Marty Ashby

George Orwell

Jack Kornfield

Natasha Banta

Emmylou Harris

James Joyce

Bill Strickland

Samantha Power

Nell McCafferty

Max DuPree

Tucker Nichols

Lou Reed

Richard Avedon

Jonathan Raban

Harold Lloyd

Pierre Omidyar

Villy Wang

Elizabeth Gilbert

Hilary O’Farrelly

Charles and Ray Eames

Chicken John

Bob Geldof

Elizabeth Gilbert

Scott Heiferman

Nuala O’Faolain

Ray Davies

Sofia Coppola

Robert Doisneau

William Shawn

Declan Kiberd

Robert Putnam

Keith Yamashita

Douglas Rushkoff

Van Morrison

Alonzo Lines

Alice Stewart

Audrey Hepburn

Madame de Stael

Howard Gardner

Jonathan Kozol

Franz Lanting

L.M. Montgomery

Lillian Hellman

Pat Tobin

Catherine Devlin

Fr. Hugh Fagan

Bill Murray

Alan Ball

Christopher Alexander

George F. Kennan

Frances McDormand

Cate Blanchett

John Peel

Gerrit Van Gelderen

Studs Terkel

Delia Smith

Oprah

Sunny Balzano

Robert Altman

Chris Corrigan

Jane Jacobs

General Romeo Dallaire

Catherine Keener

Garrett Fitzgerald

Roger Straus

Jessica Mitford

Michel de Montaigne

Kirsty McColl

George Dyson

Tavis Smiley

Elizabeth David

Dave Olsen

Charles Lamb

Norman Lewis

David Attenborough

Henry David Thoreau

Bjork

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alice Munro

Noel Browne

Terry Gross

Paul Smith

Robert Altman

Novice Phon

Rick Vosper

Tracy Kidder