I am always finding new ones, forgetting old ones, remembering old ones, forgetting new ones... honestly, they come and go all over the place. I've never had a couple of very specific ones. Different people for different aspects of my life and different aspects of those aspects.

It's a typical answer but this is the honest truth, my major role models these days are my friends! Not generally - I mean specific friends for specific things. I won't go into it because you don't know them but I think about how well a specific friend of mine does something I struggle with and it inspires me to push myself further in that direction, or copy what they do at least.

That said, I bet you want names so let me have a think.

Australian politicians like Bob Brown and Adam Bandt are very inspiring to me. I look at the way they basically sacrifice their lives to work tirelessly for the good of society and the planet, working to understand everyone, to deal with all kinds of people and points of view, and to do it largely publicly. They must grit their teeth privately in the bathrooms sometimes... having to not only speak and discuss and convince on a face to face level, make decisions that balance the needs for change ("How can we change something in time to not have the environment collapse in on itself?"), but dealing with the eye of the media, the paperwork and beaurocracy of government on all levels, and also deciding which sacrifices to make in the interest of what change they can realistically expect. They have to give up a lot of idealism which I'm sure is quite crushing - idealism and anger is much, much easier than compromise. I look up to them for being the heads out there doing the difficult work I could never do.

Jim Henson is one of my big role models. I think about him a lot. He's one of those people that seems like pure creativity. He was able to take any confines, any limitations, and still produce something of genuine quality, with real humour and comedic timing and charm and grace. He took to any medium, he threw himself into it and seemed somehow to be such a magical combination of things that he didn't lose himself in that. I know very few examples of people that can be truly great artists - people who don't sacrifice what they really want their art to be and to say - as well as really wonderful people that all their colleagues speak well of, and on top of all that, a GREAT business man too. He was a crowd pleaser, a staff pleaser, a company pleaser as well as somehow managing to stay a completely genuine, friendly, personable and happy man. Most people really can't do that, even if we try. We're very human and that's a beautiful thing. I could never be a Jim. But I think about him when I need inspiration, or when I think that it's just impossible to be a number of things at once, or that your art has to suffer for popularity or business. He carved his own new way. And thankfully he did it with the help and support of a LOT of other talented people, which is a GREAT relief.

Windsoy McCay is another one. I won't go on, we all know what a genius he was. Far, far, far beyond his time. His existence barely makes sense. But he mainly inspires me in the way that he constantly pushed himself. He pushed himself to get good at doing amazing things, so that he could do them without much effort and make a show out of it. He created new ways of doing things and he made you love them.

Tove Jansson and Diana Wynne Jones are both incredible ladies that will stay with me forever. They are masters of understanding humanity. They are masters of communication. They are masters of world building, and masters of fun, everyday magic. I love them and I will chase them my whole life. I can't speak enough about their talents and what they've meant to me.

Game designers like Tim Schafer and Kenichi Nishi and Anna Anthropy, people that have wonderful senses for great, fun design and pour themselves and their philosophies into their work. People who create what they think ought to exist, what makes them happy, what they have it in themselves to give to the world and who do it with a great sense of inclusion and joy.

Too many cartoonists to name, but so many are friends that let's say they fall into that first category.

Douglas Adams in more ways than I can name for just about every reason I've already stated. And so many people share this one, why reiterate. We all understand. He's had an enormous impact on my life at all stages since high school. A truly wonderful man.

Kate Bush is another incredible artist that just has a lifetime of fascinating work behind, beside and in front of her. She pours herself in and all over everything she does. I was amazed when I discovered her - it was like finally the reason I didn't give a shit about so many other artists suddenly made sense. I had been looking for someone like her.

Gonna stop now because otherwise I'll go on for hours. Covered some major ones. It was really inspiring just to think about them all! Great question, thankyou.