Kyle MacLachlan remembers David Lynch: "I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision."

If the full impact of David Lynch’s death hadn’t hit you already, it likely will upon reading Kyle MacLachlan’s heartbreaking, beautiful tribute to the late filmmaker. The two first collaborated on Lynch’s Dune—what MacLachlan namelessly refers to as “his first and last big budget movie”—and their friendship continued to grow on the sets of Blue Velvet and eventually Twin Peaks, in which MacLachlan played FBI special agent Dale Cooper. You can read MacLachlan’s tribute, which he posted alongside a collection of photos of the two from over the years, in full below. (Make sure you have the tissues ready): 

Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.

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What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to. 

Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I’d ever met.

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David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.

While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own. 

I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice. We’d talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh.

His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other.

I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.

David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything.

Lynch’s family announced the filmmaker’s death at 78 years old on his Facebook page today. “There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole,’” they wrote in their own tribute. “It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”