Books.
I love to read. I love to see the images a writer produces with my inner eye. An all time favourite author is Ayn Rand ("The Fountainhead", "Atlas Shrugged").
Other favourite books vary according to the different stages of life. The last great books I can fully recommend are "What I Loved" by Siri Hustvedt, "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen and "Mein Jahr als Mörder" by Friedrich Christian Delius.

Philosophers/Thinkers.
My favourite thinkers (and writers) are Marshall MacLuhan and Neil Postman. They managed to draw a clear image of our society under the influence of increasing media (ab)use. Albert Einstein and Buckminster Fuller both have my full respect for their scientific and philosophical achievements. C.G. Jung - we owe him and good 20th century re-connection with our psyche.

Movies.
"Wenn die Gondeln Trauer tragen" by Nicolas Roeg - it contains the most beautifully edited love scene I have ever seen in a movie.
"Die Verachtung" by Godard - it represents crucial moments of respect, trust and love in a couple's life.
"Magnolia" by P.T. Anderson - an awesome montage of several people's lives, all caught in distress about their wrongdoings at some stage, all facing the question of how to cope and how to turn their various faces to the one true self and show it.
"Amélie" - oh, it's just wonderfully refreshing, poetic and romantic, and it has the best and most believable-unbelievable special effects I've seen in a movie.

Music.
I love jazz. When I work, I listen to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, John McLaughlin, Coleman Hawkins, Chet Baker and my German jazz musician friends who never got that call from Miles Davis while he was still alive...
I love to listen to women singers like Holly Cole, Ricky Lee Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Cassandra Wilson and male singers like Peter Cincotti, George Michael, and Chet Baker with his supersoft jazz ballads... they wrap the perfect mix of intellect and emotion into those songs which make me feel: "been there, lived it, suffered through and got on with life..."
I also love classical music: I adore Mozart, Schubert, Bach, Chopin and Debussy for the deep and unique feelings they produce after all those centuries.

Art & Architecture
Italian Renaissance and before: those church frescoes are still amazing, as are Michelangelo's sculptures!!! Egyptian wall paintings in the tombs of their kings and queens, African Sculpture, vibrating with life from birth to death and on to the spirit world... Contemporary artists: Picasso, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Gilbert & George, Jenny Holzer, Jean-Michel Basquiat and new media artists like Matthew Barney, Pippilotti Rist, Jeanne-Marie Lafontaine, Sylvie Blocher to name a few...
Media: Hillman Curtis New York.
Architecture: I admire Brunelleschi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Corbusier (mainly for "Notre Dame du Haut" in Ronchamps), Gaudí, Louis Kahn, Jörn Utzon, Rolf Gutbrodt, Mario Botta, Peter Zumthor, Renzo Piano and a few courageous young architects who work on the organic convergence of computer technology and construction processes, and who definitely care about the space they cover and who respect the needs of humans who will walk, work and live in that space.