| Some heroes of mine include:
Steve Martin I'm hoping to be him when I grow up. I love his wit, his sense of balance (i.e. he tends to be fairly selective about the roles he chooses, the projects he does) and he is famous for doing many of the things I either like to do or would like to do.
Joss Whedon The guy has a way with character development that almost no other writer or director can touch. I know he's mostly associated with smaller, television-sized stories but I hope he continues to do stuff for the big screen. If you haven't seen it yet, everyone should watch all of the (sadly only 14) episodes of his space western series called "Firefly" and then the follow-up feature film called "Serenity"
Batman Of all the super heroes out there he's the one I most respect. For one thing, he'd probably squish me like a bug if I didn't. (actually, he probably couldn't care less.) I like that his goals are very specific (I'm just here to protect the city of Gotham -- if I protect the world at the same time that's OK too) and he is both more pragmatic and more realistic than most other comic book characters. He's just plain cool.
Billy Collins US Poet Laureat from 2001-2003, this is the first poet I've ever really responded to. Better than trying to explain why I like him, I'll let him do it by adding one of his smaller works:
Flames
Smokey the Bear heads
into the autumn woods
with a red can of gasoline
and a box of wooden matches.
His ranger's hat is cocked
at a disturbing angle.
His brown fur gleams
under the high sun
as his paws, the size
of catcher's mitts,
crackle into the distance.
He is sick of dispensing
warnings to the careless,
the half-wit camper,
the dumbbell hiker.
He is going to show them
how a professional does it. | 
