Which living person do you most admire, and why?

I have a lot of respect and admiration for President Carter. It was a delight when I got the Nobel Peace Prize to get a letter from him. It meant a lot to me, getting that letter from a man who is my idol in many ways. ... He always has the courage to express his views, his convictions. He doesn’t hesitate to run against the current. He has always had a moral certitude. He looks at the ethics and morality of his action, and that’s key. Whatever we do in life, whether privately or publicly, we need to have a compass. We need to be sure that what we do is not only good for us, but good for the people at large. That’s ethics. That’s morality. I think we need to always know that our work is not just good for us in the short term, but it’s morally correct. And when I talk about morality, I don’t talk about religion. I talk about a moral code, a moral value, which I think we all have, being honest, being fair, being correct. These are values I think we all share.

Johnny Mathis - he is so perfect.

I have great hopes for Barack Obama.

My wife, who has created our life and our happiness with me.

Any mother with young children who is also doing a full-time job.

Carlos Acosta, for his incredible achievement in dance.

Richard Hamilton – as my teacher at college, he greatly influenced my ways of seeing art and the world.

Right now, PJ Harvey.

Harper Lee, for writing To Kill A Mockingbird.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute. The work he and the team are doing to reduce extreme poverty is phenomenal.

An Italian neuroscientist called Rita Levi-Montalcini. She is now over 100. Under Mussolini she was forbidden from practising medicine because of the race laws. So she set up a lab in her basement, and the work she did there laid the foundations for her winning the Nobel prize.

An old tutor at Guildford School of Acting – Ian Ricketts. He is a wonderfully inspiring man.

My agent Mort Janklow, Sidney Poitier, and Barbara Walters.

Any person trying to uplift mankind.

The Dalai Lama because he has peace, and we all want that.

My wife, Donna – she is an explorer, adventuress and true contributor to the lives of everyone she meets.

Peter Hitchens: he ploughs the lonely furrow.

The Dalai Lama.

Angela Merkel; she seems wise, compassionate, curiously huggable.

My brother, Michael. He is an academic and has devoted his life to scholarship; my life seems trivial by comparison. Bastard.