What influences creation?

What influences creation? I think a part of finding yourself is finding what inspires you. As a teenager in high school I struggle with my identity and who I truly am. I've learned to channel my emotions into poetry and I wonder what influences other writers to create something new. One of the first things I wrote was a short story on a little boy who meets a magician and wishes his world away. He learns that even though he is bullied and will go through struggles the sun always will shine through the clouds and the clouds don't last forever. I often wonder why other authors write. What makes their worlds spin? What's keeping their minds ticking?

One book I've always wondered about is Dracula. How did Bram Stoker come up with the idea of blood-sucking demons? What events in his life created this vision in his mind of defeating the ultimate evil? Bram Stoker's Dracula seems to be the basis for so many great novels today. His vampire created one of the foundations for literature all over the world. I wish I could have met this cunning fellow and have been able to find out what goes through his mind when the day has been spent. 

The song "Kaleidoscope Heart" by Sara Bareilles makes me wonder what color other people's hearts are. Do their hearts beat purple? Grey? Technicolor? What inspires people to come up with something new and unique? What experiences have they gone through that have inspired them? Sara Bareilles ends the song with a hope that "inside is not a heart but a Kaleidoscope". Everything we have gone through has made us beautiful. At first the pieces may look like a mush of brown, but when you look through the kaleidoscope there lies a new beautiful creation of color. 

What inspires you to create?