I just did an article about influences as a comic writer. Some of the big influences are Beau Smith, Steve Gerber, Dwayne McDuffie, and John Ostrander. I like writers with a point of view.

As for readers influencing me to be a better writer, I'm not sure what the answer to that is, really. If you are a writer and you have a voice at all, outside voices are unlikely to change that, which is a good thing. But meeting a lot of readers does serve as a constant reminder that the audience includes a million kinds of people with a million kinds of viewpoints, and that has been tremendously helpful and encouraging to me when I get bummed about something in comics.