The great thing about inspiration is you can pick and choose. I've always liked this much more than looking up to one person and telling myself to be just like them - honestly, it's hard to think of someone who still has that effect on me. I saw some quote along the lines of "Don't look for a hero, but for great ideas." and with that content, I suppose the author would be about as happy as anyone could be with being plagiarized. Really, I've looked for it multiple times and I can't seem to find it, so I really am sorry for the author. To me it's just about keeping an open mind, and most people have something that can inspire you if you give them a chance, I think. They don't need to be perfect or even good in every way, and I don't know m(any?) people who are.
A few crazy people who have for sure inspired my writing are my relatives. Some of my relatives are absolutely hilarious, and always in a positive and infectious way, that I can only hope to emulate. I say relatives because one; vagueness, and two; you know how it is as things branch out - second cousin thrice removed to the nth power - who the heck knows what they are.
These guys are the kind the will sit around the family and tell this story that could be a quarter true or it could be completely true and you have no idea. Either they have wild imaginations or lead the most insane lives, and knowing them it's probably a combination of both. It produces stuff you for sure don't want to miss. I think the key to their storytelling is a combination of genius, and making a complete fool of themselves. Some of the setups they use I will never forget because they have this visual, an irony, and absurdism to just be perfect literary scenes, but for every memorable scenario, there will be a bout of unintelligible scream-laughing which is just as important to the final project. This is exactly what I try to do in my writing. To put in some of the closest I can get to cleverness and mixing it with my true talent of pure stupidity. And I'm doing this behind layers of anonymity and in type, but I've seen them share stories with complete strangers who are friends by the end of it. I can only say wow to that.
