What Inspires You?

Story ideas are funny things. When I try to sit down and generate a bunch of them, I get nothing. But then there are the times when I'll sit down somewhere and boom! Something pops into my head, and half an hour later, I have a pretty fleshed out idea.

For my WIP, this (very rough) passage popped in my mind:

I stared at her, barely managing the words, “Who the [f-word] are you?”

She sat up and reached into her pocket. Her smile widened, revealing wickedly sharp teeth, as she pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. I staggered back, clutching the door frame for support. My vision swam, and the only thing I could see was the barrel, long and black.

“You were supposed to die,” she said in a disapproving tone, despite the grin that stretched from ear to ear. “Oh, and me? I'm fate. But you can just call me Claire.”

She pulled the trigger.

(Note: I omitted the swear word because I prefer to keep my blog clean, but of course, I did use the actual word.) 

When that suddenly came to mind, I had to know who the girl was and why she wanted to shoot him. And that's how it came to me.

What about you? What gives you inspiration for your stories?