# Who are your heroes? Where does your inspiration come from?



## Burzum0727 (May 18, 2014)

I have noticed with all of the pictures and personal avatars of all the members of this site, the heroes and inspiration is rather strong here. Who are the people you look up to? What have you received your inspiration from? Why do you respect the things you respect?
Personally I get my inspiration from ancient sources for the most part. European mythologies, ancient poetry, ancient philosophy notably Stoics and early greek philosophy. My heroes are the gods and heroes of the mythologies. J.R.R. Tolkien was a major inspiration in my writing. The music I listen to also contributes greatly. I listen mostly to metal and classical music.

I enjoy mythology, early poetry, and philosophy because I feel that a lot of the values we need these days are embedded in these things. There are a reason these texts and pieces of poetry and discussions have lasted this long in my eyes. 
I like the music I do because it is vastly different from MOST music. The ideology behind it is deep at least in the forms I enjoy. Its lyrical content is normally in line with other things I enjoy.
I like JRR Tolkien simply because he's Tolkien, if you don't know read you'll see .

Fill us in please I think it would be a nice read to see some of these things from others.


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## Jeko (May 18, 2014)

1) Hayao Miyazaki
2) Neil Gaiman
3) The Man Upstairs


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## deBroglie (May 18, 2014)

My main inspiration normally comes from historical figures I adore, or some of the professors I've met in my life and find to be brilliant and charming. 

Mainly historical figures, though: deBroglie, William Sherman, Joseph Johnston, etc,.


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## stormageddon (May 18, 2014)

Hehe, I'd have to say Russell T Davies if I'm thinking of my avatar. That man...he may write scripts and I prose, but he is the only writer who blends morality, profundity, camp-ness and aliens so magnificently. His version of Doctor Who has made me the person I am today, pathetic and sad as that is, and it is a wellspring of inspiration for my upcoming bestseller "Walter and the Aliens".

In terms of prose writers, I'm gonna have to second you on Tolkien - his writing is beautiful, and Middle Earth even more so. George R.R. Martin is another.

The thing that really set my imagination loose was, and still is, video games, though many a dear old fart will shudder to read that. The first proper one I played was Fable 2, when I was 12. Something about it set off a yearning to create worlds of my own, and words were my only means to do that. I think that's when I became "serious" about writing - that's when I learnt that I couldn't live without it, though I knew from pretty much the moment I became literate that I loved it.

Am I being cheesy enough yet? I'll offset it by angstily declaring that my main source of inspiration is a distaste for the ways of the world, and humans as a species. Like Russell T Davies, I want to convince society to take the blindfold off when it's looking in the mirror, and to sort itself out.


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## Skodt (May 18, 2014)

Hunter S. Thompson is my favorite writing personality. The man just screamed odd and weird. I love the idea of difference and not fitting into a field. The black sheep if you will. Hunter made his own journalism and you either liked it or, for lack of better terms f***** off. He did things his way and made himself famous for his own thoughts. He wasn't put down when others didn't like him, it only fueled him to keep moving. There were plenty of things I didn't like about the man, but that is half the inspiration. Reminding me that not everyone will like what I do, say, or write, but that doesn't mean I should stop and cower.


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## Gyarachu (May 18, 2014)

- C.S. Lewis
- Shane Claiborne
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Mark Tremonti
- Ryan O'Neil (of Sleeping at Last)
- Xiahou Dun (of ancient Chinese fame, the historical figure, not the version portrayed in pop culture)


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## Apple Ice (May 18, 2014)

I don't actually have any heroes or inspiration for anything at all in my life. A bit sad, really. I've never thought to look to anyone for inspiration or as a heroic figure. It's the same for the sports I play, the life I live and writing. I remembered thinking a while back that everyone has an inspiration and it's a bit odd I don't have one. All successful people are asked who their inspiration was and they all have answers. It doesn't bode well for me. I think it's good to have an inspiration because you know what you want and know who you want to emulate, providing a clear goal for yourself. Maybe I should try to find someone to look up to as it may inspire me a bit more. 

Saying this, there are people and writings I see and know I _don't _want to be like in any way. For example, when I watch a sitcom I think "nahhhhhh" and know I will never allow myself to adhere to that sort of standard in my writing (snobby and arrogant as anything, but true). When I see someone going to the same bar every Saturday, getting pissed and generally living for the weekend I know that's not what I want for my life. So I suppose in that sense it's anti-inspiration but works just the same as inspiration because I am still striving. Guess I'm a glass half empty kind of apple.

Sorry for my long-winded answer. Good thread, though


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## John_O (May 18, 2014)

I don't have any "heroes" either. But some people I do admire.

Jane Goodall
David Attenborough
John Muir
Margaret Murie
Jeff Corwin


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## garza (May 18, 2014)

Top of the list would have to be Edward R Murrow, then followed in no particular order by Walter Cronkite when he was reporting for CBS Radio, Fulton Lewis, Jr, though I disagreed with his philosophy he was a good writer, H-V Kaltenborn, Lowell Thomas, Ernie Pyle, and going back in history Richard Harding Davis. His reporting was first rate. In one way or another each of these has influenced my writing.


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## Bard_Daniel (May 18, 2014)

William Shakespeare
Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck
James Joyce
Elie Wiesel
Kurt Vonnegut Jr
Hermann Hesse
Carl Jung
Friedrich Nietzsche
Vincent Van Gogh
Syd Barrett
Marc Bolan
David Bowie
Pierre Elliot Trudeau
Julius Caesar
Alexander the Great
Socrates
Napoleon
Hernan Cortes

Among many many others. Just named a few.


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## Clove (May 18, 2014)

Angela Carter, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mo Yan, Virginia Woolf, would be my primary influences.


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## Burzum0727 (May 18, 2014)

Oh trust me I have been influenced by some games just as much! Cheesy... my friend my life is surrounded around mythology.


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## Burzum0727 (May 18, 2014)

danielstj said:


> William Shakespeare
> Ernest Hemingway
> John Steinbeck
> James Joyce
> ...


Sir, I think we need to remain in contact! Your list imo is nothing short of fantastic!


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## bookmasta (May 18, 2014)

Rick Riordan. Reading his Percy Jackson series opened me up to reading and eventually writing. My inspiration comes from the slice of life and coming of age books I write. Its in the way the plot unfolds and how the characters come their adversity and troubles. Of course, not all of them have happy endings. Which only makes them that more real to me.


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## Burzum0727 (May 18, 2014)

Apple Ice said:


> I don't actually have any heroes or inspiration for anything at all in my life. A bit sad, really. I've never thought to look to anyone for inspiration or as a heroic figure. It's the same for the sports I play, the life I live and writing. I remembered thinking a while back that everyone has an inspiration and it's a bit odd I don't have one. All successful people are asked who their inspiration was and they all have answers. It doesn't bode well for me. I think it's good to have an inspiration because you know what you want and know who you want to emulate, providing a clear goal for yourself. Maybe I should try to find someone to look up to as it may inspire me a bit more.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I can actually agree with you there for the most part. I was that way for most of my life until a couple years ago. Then I realized I had a lot of inspiration and admiration. I am a lot in that similar thought process, hence the reason I tend to go back to a completely different time period, which I didn't understand till about last year, after 7 years of study lol. 
Also I rather enjoyed your answer. It did not drag at all to me


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## A_Jones (May 18, 2014)

Diana Wynne Jones.   The queen of fantasy!  She had such an utterly beautiful mind!   I am blown away by her imagination.   

And yes the man upstairs as well. 

J. M. Barrie has been a role model since I was still in pull ups!


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## EmmaSohan (May 18, 2014)

J.K. Rowlings for her characters. Even her owls are fascinating. Deb Caletti for her metaphors. Meg Cabot for collage style. And many others I have absorbed without remembering their names. There are a lot of amazing authors.


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## garza (May 18, 2014)

Clove - Two of the writers you name are two of my favourite fiction authors - Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez Neither has, however influenced the way I write. Trained initially to write for newspaper and later for magazines and television, my style has not changed materially since I was in my teens.

No, no. I'm _not stuck in a rut_. I'm _consistent_! There's a difference, isn't there? 

Isn't there?


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## Pidgeon84 (May 18, 2014)




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## Bishop (May 18, 2014)

Ray Bradbury
HG Wells
CS Lewis
Robert Heinlein
Isaac Asimov
Frank Herbert
Harry Harrison
Shakespeare
Douglas Adams


*Sings* One of these things is not like the other!


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## T.S.Bowman (May 18, 2014)

Burzum0727 said:


> Who are the people you look up to? What have you received your inspiration from? Why do you respect the things you respect?
> 
> Fill us in please I think it would be a nice read to see some of these things from others.



Who I look up to...Terry Brooks (the first Fantasy author I really got into)...Terry Pratchett...Neil Gaiman...Piers Anthony. Those are the writers I aspire to be. 

I get my "inspiration" from just about anything, but mostly from music I happen to be listening to. The other day I was messing around on YouTube and remembered and old song called Don't Pay The Ferryman. I'm not sure why it popped into my head, but I decided to look it up. While watching the video and listening to the lyrics, the question of "What if Charon got tired of being the Ferryman and didn't want the job anymore?" came to me. So I started writing what I thought he would have to say about it.

My novel in progress was inspired by a song by Ronnie James Dio with a little nudge from Dream Theater. Music (listening to, not playing) has always been a big part of my life. I guess that's why it's while I am listening that I have an occasional idea pop into my head.


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## Kyle R (May 19, 2014)

Bishop said:


> Ray Bradbury
> HG Wells



Bravo! The same two authors that inspired me to write. :encouragement:


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## Greimour (May 19, 2014)

Hero - maybe William Wallace 

writers that piqued my imagination - Trudi Canavan, Derek Landy, Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr Seuss), Roald Dahl, Joe Abercrombie, Phillip Pullman... the list is huge.

I don't really know if anyone is my inspiration. When  I am in love - Whoever I am 'with' is the one I draw strength from to become productive and is who inspires me for whatever I do.


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## Cran (May 19, 2014)

I've got to say I was impressed by Ogg Ogg (the First), inventor of cave-wall graffiti and the family portrait, and lead percussionist of Sticks and Stones - the first rock group. 

In-Ta-Net, of course, who broke with traditions that dictated stories had to be told around blazing fires and writing was for accountants; founded the Nile-High Club, which he used to beat papyrus reeds into flat sheets so that he could record his imaginative lies for posterity - it had to be posterity, because literacy was mostly unknown at the time. 

Then there's Gutenberg, who figured out how to make limitless copies of words and images without a million monkeys on typewriters, before going on to star in the Police Academy movies.


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## NerdyMJ (May 19, 2014)

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, R.L. Stine, and J.K. Rowling. Stine is the reason I first started writing as a child. I originally wanted to write horror novels and I thought he was amazing, but as I got older and became more interested in comic books, I started to gravitate more towards the scifi and fantasy genres. By reading Rowling's work, I realized that not all fantasy is about orcs, goblins, and wars in imaginary lands. I spend a lot of time developing my characters and story arcs because I want them to be as memorable as the ones I saw portrayed in the Marvel cartoons I watched on television. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are, like, the epitome of greatness as far as those things go, for me.


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## Kepharel (May 19, 2014)

You may admire many people, gifted in some way for their art, or for their contribution through science to mankind in general, but are they heroes?  Their influence, being global, makes them the property of everyone and their just due is admiration.  On the other hand, there are those who change us, and influence us in how to conduct our lives each day, unconsciously, on an individual basis; who cause us to share with them and live by that moral standard for which we have a deep personal affinity; who show us the benchmark by being our very own guiding light. The question you must ask yourself is what was the last book, film, work of art etc., that actually changed your life? I've yet to experience one.  The best I can say is that I have been moved by the words and images put in front of me, sometimes very deeply, but in transience only, that is all.  My heroes go a lot deeper than any of that.


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## Nicholas McConnaughay (May 19, 2014)

Skodt said:


> Hunter S. Thompson is my favorite writing personality. The man just screamed odd and weird. I love the idea of difference and not fitting into a field. The black sheep if you will. Hunter made his own journalism and you either liked it or, for lack of better terms f***** off. He did things his way and made himself famous for his own thoughts. He wasn't put down when others didn't like him, it only fueled him to keep moving. There were plenty of things I didn't like about the man, but that is half the inspiration. Reminding me that not everyone will like what I do, say, or write, but that doesn't mean I should stop and cower.


He was very, very interesting, especially in his writing, it sounded a lot like he spoke. It sounded like absolute rambling at times, but in a good way. I wish he would have hit on topics that I liked more though.

---

I can't think of anybody that jumps out at me, I mean, I like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Rowling, Clive Barker, and about a million others, but I wouldn't say that any of them were my heroes or inspired me to write. If anything, I have to credit my love for storytelling to all of the movies that I watched whenever I was younger. A lot of horror movies, and then, later things like Memento and Donnie Darko were some really inspiring ideas for me.


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## Lyra Laurant (May 19, 2014)

I admire Graciliano Ramos and Machado de Assis a lot, they are two brazillian writers who could dive deep in human souls like no one. They are probably the writers who influenced me the most.



Burzum0727 said:


> Oh trust me I have been influenced by some games just as much!



I admire game creators who, despite old/simple/poor graphics, can still give me a powerfull emotional experience with their stories.


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## Clove (May 19, 2014)

Lyra Laurant said:


> I admire Graciliano Ramos and Machado de Assis a lot, they are two brazillian writers who could dive deep in human souls like no one. They are probably the writers who influenced me the most.



Yes! I read Machado de Assis' Dom Casmurro and it was just brilliant. Nothing like it. Have you read Clarice Lispector? She's another Brazilian writer whose work reveals much about the human psyche.


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## Pidgeon84 (May 19, 2014)

Mine are mostly musicians. Trent Reznor, Maynard James Keenan, Devin Townsend, Hendrix, Adam "Nergal" Darski, Matthew Bellamy. I could just list everyone I listen to really but those guys are the ones who inspire stuff most often. As far as writers go Lovecraft is the one that really pops in my head. He's really the one who I consciously try to incorporate his style into my own, unsuccessfully I might add.


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## escorial (May 19, 2014)

John Steinbeck...how he brings basically mundane experiences to life...


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## Lyra Laurant (May 19, 2014)

Clove said:


> Yes! I read Machado de Assis' Dom Casmurro and it was just brilliant. Nothing like it. Have you read Clarice Lispector? She's another Brazilian writer whose work reveals much about the human psyche.



Yeah, Clarice Lispector is also amazing! *-*
And Dom Casmurro is one of my favorite books!  And Machado de Assis' _The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, _another of my favorites, is brilliant from it's dedicatory ("To the worm who first gnawed on the cold flesh of my corpse, I dedicate with fond remembrance these Posthumous Memoirs." ) to the end! :biggrin:


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## midnightpoet (May 19, 2014)

Tarzan, Donald Duck, and Sherlock Holmes.  No, I'm not kidding.  They got me started reading at a very young age and I haven't quit yet.  From those beginnings I got interested in history, science, mystery, natural history, and so many other things I can't count.  They sparked my interest and my curiosity to find out about the world and the people in it.


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## voltigeur (May 19, 2014)

Not sure I have Heroes.  As a kid I have always admired the men who fought in WW2 especially the Marines in the Pacific. It didn't take too much arm twisitng from my Uncle to convice me to go into the infantry when I decided to join up. 

As far as authors that have inspired my WIP: I would say there are 3 (one very obscure) 

Collin Willock (The Fighters 1978ish) Basically a historical fiction version of rise and decline of the Luftwaffe.

Tom Clancy - for structure and handling a world wide story. 

Larry Bond - for humanising epic events.


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## Bishop (May 20, 2014)

voltigeur said:


> Tom Clancy - for structure and handling a world wide story.



RIP.

Great writer, most specifically on Rainbow Six and Hunt For Red October. Though sometimes the technical stuff does get a little thick...


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## Bard_Daniel (May 20, 2014)

Rainbow Six was a GREAT read.


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## garza (May 20, 2014)

Now you are making me feel ignorant, illiterate, naming people I never heard of.


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## T.S.Bowman (May 20, 2014)

I know the feeling, garza.


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## aj47 (May 20, 2014)

Robert Heinlein -- for expressing how our flaws can be our strengths (which isn't normally why people list him, I don't think)
Jonathan Guthrie - my wonderful husband who actually loves who I am and not an image of me that he concocts 
Byron - he wrote without a rhyming dictionary but his fantastic vocabulary blows me away.  True rhyme is amazing.
Basho - he saw through the externalities to the essence and expressed it
PJ Plauger - the man just *knows* the sheer joy of programming and can write about it in an accessible way that relates it to everyday living, both the big and small parts.

My avatar is Susan Sarandon from the "Bull Durham" time-frame.  It is my favorite movie and the way her character loves baseball is visceral.


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## aj47 (May 20, 2014)

escorial said:


> John Steinbeck...how he brings basically mundane experiences to life...



... he also treats the outcasts with gentleness that helps you to see not "why" they don't fit in, but why you should love them anyway.


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## aj47 (May 20, 2014)

A_Jones said:


> Diana Wynne Jones.



I was supposed to read a cycle of hers but the guy who owned it moved.  And it was never important enough for me to actually look up.

But the way he wouldn't loan me the books to mail back to him says a LOT about them.


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## Apple Ice (May 20, 2014)

I just remembered that it was Darren Shan who got me in to reading in the first place and by extension writing. Credit where credit is due. I really did enjoy that book and the fact it created a life-long hobby is something I should be very grateful for. His Cirque Du Freak books got a bit rubbish at the end and I was subsequently put off him. Still tgough, thanks Darren.


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## Bruno Spatola (May 20, 2014)

*Writers:* Clive Barker, Michael Morpurgo, CS Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter, Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, Lovecraft, Rowling, Tolkien, Alan Moore.

*Directors:* Hitchcock, Scorsese, Michael Mann, Romero, Spielberg, Sam Raimi, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, Mel Brooks, Hayao Miyazaki, Coen Brothers.

*Game Directors/Games:* Ken Levine (_System Shock_, _Bioshock_), Tetsuya Nomura (_Final Fantasy 7-10, Kingdom Hearts_), Hideki Kamiya (_Devil May Cry, Okami_), Patrice Désilets (_Prince of Persia: Sands of Time_), Hideo Kojima (_Metal Gear Solid_)  Fumito Ueda (_ICO, Shadow of the Colossus_), Suda 51 (_Killer 7, Shadows of the Damned, No More Heroes_), Valve (_Half-Life 2, Portal_), Tim Schafer (_Psychonauts, Costume Quest_), _Rez_, _Symphony of the Night_, _Myst, Silent Hill, _etc.It goes on .        

*Musicians/Bands/Albums: *Yoko Shimomura, Hans Zimmer, JS Bach, Chopín, Saint-Saens, Handel, Muse (_Origin of Symmetry, Absolution_), Tool (_Aenima, Lateralus_), Smashing Pumpkins (_Siamese Dream_, _Mellon Collie_), Deftones (_Around the Fur,_ _White Pony)_, Radiohead (_OK Computer, In Rainbows_), Mastodon (_Blood Mountain, Crack the Skye.)_ 

*TV Shows:* TNG, 24, Breaking Bad, X-Files, Blackadder, Mr.Bean, Spaced, Extras, The Office, The Thick of It, Veep, Black Books, Father Ted, Jonathan Creek, Buffy, Simpsons, Life on Mars, Mythbusters.

*Artists/Art:* Dali, Magritte, Michel Angelo, da Vinci, Seen (graffiti artist), Banksy. I love Japanese art from the ancient eras, also; Greek too.

*Intelligent People:* Carl Sagan, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, da Vinci, Richard Feynman, Alan Turing, Marilyn Manson, Derren Brown, Florence Nightingale.

*Hosts/Presenters/Comedians:* Louis Theroux, Stephen Fry, Mark Lamar, David Frost, Bill Bailey, Dylan Moran, Steve Wright, Ricky Gervais, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Gene Wilder.

*Magicians:* Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Kellar, Derren Brown, Penn & Teller.

*Comic Characters: *Magneto, Batman, Joker, Two-Face, Spawn, Wolverine, Rogue, Spider-Man. 

*Athletes/Martial Artists: *Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Ali.

*Actors:* Tommy Lee Jones, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Cain, Meryl Streep, Maggie Smith, Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Ian McKellen, Ray Winston, Al Pacino.


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## Pidgeon84 (May 20, 2014)

Bruno Spatola said:


> Tool (_Aenima, Lateralus)_



10,000 Days is better than Lateralus! Yeah I said it. Come at me bro.

Anyways, excellent list lol


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## Bruno Spatola (May 20, 2014)

Vicarious, The Pot, Right in Two, Jambi, Wings for Marie, 10,000 Days, all cool tracks. It's not the complicated monolith Lateralus is overall, though, and it has a softer edge to it. Maynard's vocals were on the way out, too. Not his best.

Good album still.

Schism (that breakdown!), The Patient (those lyrics!), Parabola (Groovy transcendentalism!), The Grudge (those vocals!), Lateralus (that riff! Fibonacci syllables!) -- that album is a classic


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## Pidgeon84 (May 20, 2014)

Bruno Spatola said:


> Vicarious, The Pot, Right in Two, Jambi, Wings for Marie, 10,000 Days, all cool tracks. It's not the complicated monolith Lateralus is overall, though, and it has a softer edge to it. Maynard's vocals were on the way out, too. Not his best.
> 
> Good album still.
> 
> Schism (that breakdown!), The Patient (those lyrics!), Parabola (Groovy transcendentalism!), The Grudge (those vocals!), Lateralus (that riff! Fibonacci syllables!) -- that album is a classic



What about Rossetta Stoned and Right in Two?! I just enjoy 10,000 Days end to end more than Lateralus. The last few tracks peter out for me. Plus Ticks and Leeches kills the flow. Honestly, without Ticks, Lateralus would be much better.


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## Bruno Spatola (May 20, 2014)

Meh, it's one track, but I agree Ticks doesn't fit with the rest of the album. It almost sounds like it was left over from their Undertow/Aenima sessions. It was Lateralus' _Hooker With a Penis _equivalent. *Edit:* Danny Carey's drumming on it is amazing, though; his most complicated beats I've heard.

I only listen to albums in their arranged order three or four times anyway. Flow isn't a big deal to me after a while, the music stands up on its own just as well.


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## CosmicGhost (Jun 3, 2014)

I've read Phil K. Dick since I  was young, so I have fondness of his writing.

  Robert J. Sawyer is the only living author I get excited about. The rest of my inspiration comes from the real world, it's people and technology and how we are using it. 

 Years back I sent Robert J. Sawyer a lengthy email, and he actually wrote me back a proper response entertaining my ideas and viewpoints, which was inspiring.


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## CosmicGhost (Jun 3, 2014)

Maynard J Keenan is an interesting guy. He made so much powerful music, but he lives as a humble wine maker and family man with a wicked creative side. Check out his interviews on Joe Rogan Experience.


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## Pidgeon84 (Jun 3, 2014)

CosmicGhost said:


> Maynard J Keenan is an interesting guy. He made so much powerful music, but he lives as a humble wine maker and family man with a wicked creative side. Check out his interviews on Joe Rogan Experience.



Seen em, they're excellent. I think eveything that man touches is gold. Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, all exceptional.


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## Emz (Jun 3, 2014)

I get my inspiration from history. Events that changes our country and the world. I love history, i am definatly what you would call a "history buff." My heros? My heros are people like "stonewall" Jackson and Colonel Chamberlain... And jesus 
I am writing my first book about a boy during the holocaust.


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## Tan (Jun 3, 2014)

interesting thread. I myself adore the sound of a well played electric guitar. My father is a professional guitarist for not one but two bands. I also really like classical and trailer music. I will list off my heroes now. In no particular order, unless you count, who comes to mind first. 


-My father
-My mother
-My soulmate
-Dr. Glassier
-Nikola Tesla
-TJ(amazing atheist)
-Edward Snowden
-Oscar Schindler(I am not jewish but this man deserves more attention and is a true hero)
-Jim Cummings
-Clancy Brown
-Mike Erwin
-Nichole Sullivan
-Tara Strong
-JK Rowling
-Niel Patrick Harris
-Tomas Fritch
-Peter Vack
-Tom Morello
-Zack de la Rocha
-Stephen Amell
-John Barrowman
-Manu Bennet
-Yngwie Malmsteen
-Mark Tornillo 
-Wolf Hoffman
-Alan Rickman
-Bruce Willis
-Christian Bale
-Alexander Roshal
-Quentin Terrentino(sorry if I misspelled this brilliant man's name...)
-Alfred Hitchcock
-Osamu Tezuka
-John Kricfalusi
-Butch Hartman
-Stephen Hillenburg
-Seth Macfarlane
-Bert Reynolds
-Ralph Macchio
-Bert(from the pivot community. He is a jerk but he made stick animations I am VERY fond of.)
-Jimmy Ruska
-Fire fighters in general
-Police who do their job by the book
-Morgan Freeman
-Craig Ferguson
-Patrick Warburton 
-Robert Downy JR
-Chris Nolan
-Tim Burton
-Ralph Fiennes
-Liam Neeson
-Naughty Dog
-Capcom
-Ubisoft
-Volition
-Niel deGrasse Tyson
-Michael Faraday
-John Harrington
-Dr Suess
-Charles Babbage(inventor of the modern day computer according to howstuffworks)
-Hans Zimmer
-Ennio Morrocone
-Klaus Badelt
-Harry Partrige
-Matt Groening
-Lauren Faust
-Any and all US Marines keeping America's waters free of Somali pirates. 
-The soldiers that volunteered so my country didn't need to issue a draft.
-Phil Lamar
-Samuel L Jackson
-Adele
-Weird Al
-Mel Brooks
-Teddy Roosevelt
-Henry Kissenger
-My grade school teachers
-Nathaniel(this guy helped my story alot)

This list is incomplete and these are all that came to mind... I know its rather big, but i assure you, each one of them has helped shaped me in some way and I respect each person on the list greatly.


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## Bishop (Jun 3, 2014)

And that, ladies and gents, is the first time I've ever seen Liam Neeson on the same list as Lauren Faust.


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## aliveatnight (Jun 3, 2014)

I don't really have much in the way of hero's honestly. I get a lot of inspiration from my music, and video games, but that's really it.
Kind of sad, but oh well.
Actually, now that I think about it, the person that I admire the most would have to be Amy Lee of Evanescence. She might be a song writer, but those lyrics really ring true to me. I get a lot from her.


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## dale (Jun 3, 2014)

i really respect the hell out of roberta blanchowski. her writing and feel for everything is just unimaginably beautiful. total influence on everything
 i've ever wrote.


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