Ringworld - Larry Niven, Iain.M.Banks, Culture Novels

Ever gawped in wonder at Iain M Banks Culture series, and thought yes this is the only imagined "utopia" that I would like to live in, and certainly one that I would love to have thought up and written about. Then I started reading Ringworld and I realised that this is where Iain M Banks got his ideas from - which is not in any way to diminish the achievement of the Culture novels, it's just to find out that everyone builds on someone else's  imagination.  The main male character, Louis Wu is very similar to some of Banks's heros - been everywhere, done everything,  and the main female character Teela Brown, has lots of similarities with Banks's too - beautiful, rich, privileged but with hidden depths.  There's even an equivalent of the Affronters in the fierce cat like species the kzin, and there's some great humour too.  I like the Ringworld a lot, as well as Iain M Banks Culture novels - I can see where Banks has taken themes and ideas and developed them rather than copied them, with wit and verve.