One of the world’s greatest creative minds talks all things writing, loss, growing up and staying true to your dreams.

YA Mag: How did you come to be a writer?

JM Barrie: My family was horribly disappointed, the wanted me to become a minister like my older brother, David, would have if he hadn’t died in an ice skating accident, rest his soul. It was a long road but the forces within me were too strong to deny. I struck a compromise with my family – I would go to school and gear up toward a professional career, but I was able to study literature. I started writing feverishly in university and never stopped.

YA: You’ve had success in the theater and with novels. Do you have a preference?

JB: My first love is the theater but it becomes infinitely easier to explore subtle inner thoughts and emotions in novels. I don’t think Peter Pan would have caught as he did if not for both – he first appeared in an adult novel, later adapted into a play and then back into a novel solely focus on Peter and Wendy. Revisiting him all those times allowed me to smooth out any rough edges and craft the Peter that has become so resonant.

YA: Are Peter and Wendy based on real people?

JB: Of course they are, however they are seen through the prism of my imagination. I met the real Peter when he was a baby…and at the time in my life when I met him it reengaged my fascination with childhood and obsession with imagination. Wendy is a combination of several people, including my mother, and I love her dearly for all that she is.

YA: Do you have a favorite adaptation?

JB: That’s like asking if I have a favorite child. As a playwright I was used to seeing my work interpreted by different directors, but film is a medium outside my purview. I loved the Disney cartoon version, but I was utterly enthralled with Spielberg’s version, Hook. I know it is quite different from Peter Pan, but I think that’s why it resonated so strongly with me.

YA: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

JB: Never lose your sense of play and creativity. That is the biggest message throughout Peter Pan and I think I was trying to work it out in my own life. If you lose your sense of imagination, you’re dead in the water.