On a serious level: Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Natan Sharansky and Vaclav Havel and all those individuals brave enough to oppose ruthless totalitarian regimes and live to tell about it. Also, writers such as Robert Kaplan, VS Naipaul, Christopher Hitchens, and Orhan Pamuk, who speak to the realities of their respective worlds and are brave enough to say what is unpopular for the sake of the truth.On an...entertainment level: Tom Brady, quarterback for my beloved New England Patriots to understand how he does 'it' both on and off the field; Theo Epstein, to understand just what the hell he is doing with/to my beloved Boston Red Sox; Woody Allen and Steven Soderbergh because I LOVE their films; and...Keira Knightley (as if I need to explain that one).