15 David Lynch Quotes to Live and Create By

David Lynch, the inimitable writer-director-artist who has died at 78, leaves behind a bounty of wisdom about film, creativity and life. He also shared many thoughts over the years about diners, coffee, and even smoking — a thing he enjoyed but discouraged in his later years, as he struggled with emphysema.

We have included links to the original sources whenever possible so that you can appreciate them in context. When Lynch's words are voiced through one of his fictional characters, we include the character, actor, and name of the film or show.

And now, here are 15 of our favorite...

David Lynch Quotes

"I had this idea that you drink coffee, you smoke cigarettes, and you paint, and that's it. Maybe girls come into it a little bit, but basically it's the incredible happiness of working and living that life." — David Lynch in the 2016 documentary David Lynch: The Art Life.

"I like to remember things my own way. How I remembered them, not necessarily the way they happened.”—Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) in Lost Highway

"Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful. I look for a certain kind of fish that is important to me, one that can translate to cinema. But there are all kinds of fish swimming down there. There are fish for business, fish for sports. There are fish for everything.— Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

“There's a safety in thinking in a diner. You can have your coffee or your milkshake, and you can go off into strange dark areas, and always come back to the safety of the diner.”—ibid.

“Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole.”—ibid.

“If you catch an idea that you love, that's a beautiful, beautiful day.”—David Lynch in a 2014 BAM interview

"I write to remember. I always say: write down the idea in such a way that when you read it again the idea comes back in full. So a script is for getting the ideas down, but it’s not the final thing at all. It’s to remind you of the idea, which could be much more full than what the words actually are saying. For instance, the script has no sound to it. It’s just ideas.” — David Lynch in a 2021 interview in Art Review

"The film is the thing. You work so hard to get, you know, after the ideas come, to get this thing built, all the elements to feel correct, the whole to feel correct, in this beautiful language called cinema. And the second it's finished, people want you to change it back into words. And it's very, very saddening. It's torture."—David Lynch in a 2009 BAFTA interview

"There's nothing like the big screen. The cinema is really built for the big screen and big sound, so that a person can go into another world and have an experience."—David Lynch in a 2008 New York Times interview

“Playing the movie on a telephone, you will never, in a trillion years, experience the film. You'll think you have experienced it, but you'll be cheated. It's such a sadness that you think you've seen a film on your fucking telephone. Get real."—undated interview

"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee.”—Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) on Twin Peaks

"Inside, we are ageless... and when we talk to ourselves, it's the same age of the person we were talking to when we were little. It's the body that is changing around that ageless center.”

"I don't regret it. It was important to me. I wish what every addict wishes for: that what we love is good for us."—David Lynch in a 2024 People interview urging people not to smoke.

“I believe life is a continuum, and that no one really dies, they just drop their physical body and we'll all meet again, like the song says. It's sad but it's not devastating if you think like that... We're all going to be fine at the end of the story.”

"One day the sadness will end."—The Log Lady, Margaret Lanterman (Catherine E. Coulson), on Twin Peaks

Main image: David Lynch promoting his film Inland Empire on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles in 2006. Shutterstock.