In The World Of The Dreamer

In the world
of the dreamer
there was solitude:
all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude. But with action came anxiety, and the sense of insuperable effort made to match the dream, and with it came weariness, discouragement, and the flight into solitude again. And then in solitude, in the opium den of remembrance, the possibility of pleasure again.
--Anais Nin
(from "Children of the Albatross")