Kyle MacLachlan Talks Loss of ‘Twin Peaks’ Creator and Friend David Lynch (Exclusive)

Eight months after David Lynch died, his friend and frequent collaborator Kyle MacLachlan admits the loss is still “hard to get my head around.”

During a recent PEOPLE in 10 interview, the 66-year-old actor explained what the acclaimed director, who died at 78 in January due to complications from emphysema, meant to his life and his career.

“Tremendous loss of not just a creative talent but also a friend, you know, and that’s hard to get my head around,” says MacLachlan, who worked with Lynch since the 1980s on Dune, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks projects.

MacLachlan adds, “David’s vision, his sense of the world, was one-of-a-kind. That I got to be part of that with him for a number of different projects was really a special thing — I’m a very lucky person.”

MacLachlan, who is in the midst of promoting his new show The Lowdown, has often credited the Oscar-winning director for catapulting his career, including in a touching Instagram tribute following Lynch’s death. 

“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,” MacLachlan wrote at the time. “He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.”

MacLachlan continued in his heartfelt caption, “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.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

MacLachlan, a Golden Globe winner in 1991 for his role as Dale Cooper in Lynch’s Twin Peaks, elaborated on their relationship in his tribute.

“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,” he wrote. “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.”

MacLachlan added, “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,” he continued, before concluding, “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.”

The Lowdown premiered Sept. 23 on FX and is streaming on Hulu.