Quotes by David Lynch

Cinema is a language. It can say things—big, abstract things. And I love that about it. I’m not always good with words. Some people are poets and have a beautiful way of saying things with words. But cinema is its own language. And with it you can say so many things, because you’ve got time and sequences. You’ve got dialogue. You’ve got music. You’ve got sound effects. You have so many tools. And you can express a feeling and a thought that can’t be conveyed any other way. Its a magical medium. For me, it’s so beautiful to think about these pictures and sounds flowing together in time and in sequence, making something that can be done only through cinema. Its not just words or music-it’s a whole range of elements coming together and making something that didn’t exist before. It’s telling stories. It’s devising a world, an experience, that people cannot have unless they see that film. When I catch an idea for a film, I fall in love with the way cinema can express it. I like a story that holds abstractions, and that’s what cinema can do.

It doesnt do any good to say, This is what it means. When you are spoon fed a film, people instantly know what it is. I like films that leave room to dream.

Intuition is the key to everything, in painting, filmmaking, business - everything. I think you could have an intellectual ability, but if you can sharpen your intuition, which they say is emotion and intellect joining together, then a knowingness occurs.

I dont remember my dreams too much. I hardly have ever gotten ideas from nighttime dreams. But I love daydreaming and dream logic and the way dreams go.

Absurdity is what I like most in life, and theres humor in struggling in ignorance. If you saw a man repeatedly running into a wall until he was a bloody pulp, after a while it would make you laugh because it becomes absurd.

Humor is very interesting to me. My films are not comedies, but theres comedy in them from time to time, absurdities, just like in real life.

I didnt watch much TV as a kid and I don t watch it now. I don t find anything beautiful or unique to the medium, and the only thing you can do on TV that you cant do in film is make a continuing story - which is so cool!

I love Bob Dylan. Who doesnt? He tapped into some kind of vein and it keeps on keeping on. Theres nobody like him. Hes unique, and just... way out cool.

Music deals with time and timing. Its so magical, but when you get into it, every little sound and every little space between the sounds, its critical, so critical. And if its not there, it not only feels wrong, but it ruins things.

More and more people are seeing the films on computers - lousy sound, lousy picture - and they think theyve seen the film, but they really havent.

I love Christmas tree bulbs, and I started putting them in my paintings. Youve got to plug this painting in, and its got a rig in the back, so that each one can be replaced if it burns out.

Stories hold conflict and contrast, highs and lows, life and death, and the human struggle and all kinds of things.

A filmmaker doesnt have to suffer to show suffering. You just have to understand it. You dont have to die to shoot a death scene.

The mantra that youre given in Transcendental Meditation you keep to yourself. The reason being, true happiness is not out there, true happiness lies within.

Life should be blissful, and blissful doesnt mean just a small happiness. Its huge. It is profound.

Transcendental meditation is an ancient mental technique that allows any human being to dive within, transcend and experience the source of everything. Its such a blessing for the human being because that eternal field is a field of unbounded intelligence, creativity, happiness, love, energy and peace.

A poet could write volumes about diners, because theyre so beautiful. Theyre brightly lit, with chrome and booths and Naugahyde and great waitresses. Now, it might not be so great in the health department, but I think diner food is really worth experiencing periodically.

I dont think that people accept the fact that life doesnt make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it.

Meditation is to dive all the way within, beyond thought, to the source of thought and pure consciousness. It enlarges the container, every time you transcend. When you come out, you come out refreshed, filled with energy and enthusiasm for life.

If we didnt want to upset anyone, we would make films about sewing, but even that could be dangerous. But I think finally, in a film, it is how the balance is and the feelings are. But I think there has to be those contrasts and strong things within a film for the total experience.