Life doesn't retreat.
The young remember most deeply.... When we are old and failing, it is the memories of childhood which can be summoned most clearly.
Lovemaking seems all too absurd when described.
His imagination was always more real than the reality of daily life.
Words are the only bullets in truth's bandolier. And poets are the snipers.
Speaking as a novelist myself, I know that members of our profession live in our imaginations as much or more as we inhabit what people call 'the real world.