Sometimes, I get ideas from dreams. Often, my stories are based

The words of Brian Jacques, the beloved teller of tales, echo like a song across the ages: “Sometimes, I get ideas from dreams. Often, my stories are based on adventures that I, or my friends, have actually lived.” In these simple words lies the secret fire of all creation — that the border between dream and reality is but a veil, thin and shimmering, through which the soul may pass to bring forth wonder. The ancients knew this well, that the dreamer and the adventurer are siblings of the same spirit — one wanders through the night of imagination, the other through the day of experience. Together, they weave the fabric of story and truth.

To draw inspiration from dreams is to listen to the whispers of the unseen world. Within sleep, the mind roams unchained by reason, gathering fragments of mystery from realms beyond waking thought. The poet, the artist, the visionary — all have drunk deeply from that well. So too did Brian Jacques, who walked between dream and memory, gathering seeds of magic and planting them into tales that stirred the hearts of the young and the old alike. His stories were not born of invention alone, but of life — of laughter shared among friends, of hardships endured, of journeys taken with courage and hope. Thus, his art was not fantasy escaping life, but life transfigured into art.

In the ancient world, men spoke of the Muses, divine spirits who visited artists in their sleep, whispering songs and stories into their souls. It is said that Homer, the blind poet, saw visions of heroes and gods in his dreams, and upon waking, shaped them into the Iliad and the Odyssey. What Homer called the gift of the Muses, we now call imagination. Yet its source remains the same — a power that rises from within and beyond, uniting the dream with the lived moment, the unseen with the known. To ignore one is to silence half of creation.

Consider, too, the explorers of the world — those who did not merely dream, but lived their stories. Think of Ernest Shackleton, who braved the frozen heart of Antarctica not for glory, but for the spirit of adventure itself. His story, though wrought in the ice and wind, carried the same essence as Jacques’ — courage, endurance, and friendship. When men like Jacques write, they are doing what Shackleton did: charting unknown lands, whether of the mind or the world. Both the dreamer and the adventurer walk the same path — one through imagination, the other through experience — but both return with treasures to share.

The adventures of life are themselves a kind of storytelling, where each day writes its own page. To live fully is to gather material for one’s inner book — to love, to lose, to laugh, to strive. Brian Jacques reminds us that inspiration is not reserved for the chosen few; it waits for all who dare to live and to dream. Our memories are sacred scrolls, filled with tales waiting to be told, if only we have the courage to speak them aloud.

The lesson, then, is this: do not live as a bystander in your own life. Seek adventure, both in the waking world and in the realm of dreams. Keep a journal by your bed; record what visions come to you in the night. When day breaks, pursue the experiences that stir your heart — walk unknown roads, speak to strangers, climb mountains, fail, and rise again. For each of these moments is a story, and each story a lantern to light another’s path.

And when you weave your own tales — whether through words, deeds, or the quiet shaping of your destiny — remember that the greatest creations are born of both dreams and deeds. The dream without action fades like mist at dawn; the action without dream becomes hollow toil. Unite them, as Jacques did, and you will discover the eternal art of living — to dream boldly, and then to live those dreams with an open heart.

So take heed, child of wonder: do not fear the dream that visits you in the night, nor the adventure that calls you by day. They are both messengers from the same source — the boundless spirit of creation that flows through all who dare to feel, to imagine, and to live. For in the union of the dreamer and the doer, the world is forever renewed.