The better you know someone, the less well you often see them (and the less well they can therefore be transferred into fiction). They may be so close as to be out of focus, and there is no operating novelist to dispel the blur.
Julian BarnesHe didn’t really like travel, of course. He liked the idea of travel, and the memory of travel, but not travel itself.
Julian BarnesWhy does the writing make us chase the writer? Why can't we leave well enough alone? Why aren't the books enough?
Julian Barnes