David Lynch Quotes & Sayings

Every single person has within an ocean of pure vibrant consciousness. Every single human being can experience that - infinite intelligence, infinite creativity, infinite happiness, infinite energy, infinite dynamic peace. — David Lynch

Sleep is really important. You need to rest the physiology to be able to work weel and meditate well. When I don't get enough sleep, my meditations are duller. You may even dip into sleep at the beginning of your meditation, because you're settling down. But if you're well rested, you'll have a clearer deeper experience. — David Lynch

I'm not a real film buff. Unfortunately, I don't have time. I just don't go. And I become very nervous when I go to a film because I worry so much about the director and it is hard for me to digest my popcorn. — David Lynch

As a teenager, I was really trying to have fun 24 hours a day. I didn't start thinking until I was 20 or 21. I was doing regular goof-ball stuff. — David Lynch

I have smoked marijuana, but I no longer do. I went to art school in the 1960s so you can imagine what was going on. Yet my friends were the ones who said, "No, no, no, David, don't take those drugs." I was pretty lucky. — David Lynch

I felt I should have been the happiest person in the world. But I looked inside, and that happiness was only on the surface, not so deep. Beneath it was hollow. Up until that time, I had been thinking meditation was a joke, a fad and a waste of time. — David Lynch

Death in my mind isn't a finality. There's a continuum: It's like at night, you go to sleep and in the daytime you wake up, or whenever you wake up, and it's a new day. — David Lynch

Every human being has consciousness, but not every human being has the same amount. The potential for each one of us human beings is infinite consciousness. This is called supreme enlightenment, and it just needs unfolding by transcending each day. The more consciousness we have, the better life is. — David Lynch

I quit smoking in December. I'm really depressed about it. I love smoking, I love fire, I miss lighting cigarettes. I like the whole thing about it, to me it turns into the artist's life, and now people like Bloomberg have made animals out of smokers, and they think that if they stop smoking everyone will live forever. — David Lynch

Cigarettes are pretty much my worst vice, and I even stopped smoking for 20 years. I spend most of my free time with my family and working on art. — David Lynch

You don't need a special place to meditate. You can transcend anywhere in the world. The unified field is here, and there, and everywhere. — David Lynch

The day you catch an idea you fall in love with, even a small one, is a beautiful day. — David Lynch

I've seen so many cases where lives have been transformed for the good and heard so many stories about this. The technique of Transcendental Meditation really works for the human being. — David Lynch

I'm lost in a transition. The old is dead, and I don't know what the new is. The only way to find the new is to start different things and see if there's something that can come out of experimentation. It's somewhat unsettling, but it's a hopeful thing in a way. I've been here before, lots of times. — David Lynch

When we transcend we are diving into a field of unbounded creativity. This is real creativity and when we experience that and grow in that, we can more easily find solutions to problems. We can get ideas for whatever it is we're working on. And we will get happier by transcending every day and we will find that we're happier doing almost anything. We'll get more energy to do our work. — David Lynch

I look at the world and I see absurdity all around me. People do strange things constantly, to the point that, for the most part, we manage not to see it. That's why I love coffee shops and public places - I mean, they're all out there. — David Lynch

I'm convinced we all are voyeurs. It's part of the detective thing. We want to know secrets and we want to know what goes on behind those windows. And not in a way that we would use to hurt anyone. There's an entertainment value to it, but at the same time we want to know: What do humans do? Do they do the same things as I do? It's a gaining of some sort of knowledge, I think. — David Lynch

Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see, one chance out between two worlds, fire walk with me! — David Lynch

I have been 'diving within' through the Transcendental Meditation technique for over 30 years. It has changed my life, my world. I am not alone. Millions of other people of all ages, religions, and walks of life practice the technique and enjoy incredible benefits. — David Lynch

As a kid, I was always building things. My father had a shop in the house, and we built things - we were kind of a project family. I started out as a painter, and then painting led to cinema, and in cinema, you get to build so many things, or help build them. — David Lynch

Consciousness-Based Education is just plugging us all into the beautiful, eternal field within, and then watching things get better, which is what happens. It's a field of infinite, unbounded peace within every human being, and when you experience it, you enliven that peace. — David Lynch

Transcending gives a human being a chance to think before acting. And experiencing this beautiful treasury within gets rid of torment and replaces it with happiness, inner peace, creativity intelligence, love, energy. This fuels a real good life and fuels an appreciation for all human beings. It's so powerful and it's a blessing for humanity. — David Lynch

The house is a place where things can go wrong. — David Lynch

We want to generate the electricity of peace through music, and it's a thrill to know that the super-creative, enthusiastic musicians of our world are with us to achieve this goal. — David Lynch

I know club music has to be infectious and it's got to make you move. — David Lynch

The concept of absurdity is something I'm attracted to. — David Lynch

I've said many, many, many unkind things about Philadelphia, and I meant every one. — David Lynch

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

I started Transcendental Meditation in 1973 and have not missed a single meditation ever since. Twice a day, every day. It has given me effortless access to unlimited reserves of energy, creativity and happiness deep within. — David Lynch

People say my films are dark. But like lightness, darkness stems from a reflection of the world. The thing is, I get these ideas that I truly fall in love with. And a good movie idea is often like a girl you're in love with, but you know she's not the kind of girl you bring home to your parents, because they sometimes hold some dark and troubling things. — David Lynch

It's better not to know so much about what things mean or how they might be interpreted or you'll be too afraid to let things keep happening. — David Lynch

Because you make a world that didn't exist before, and you can go into that world deeper and deeper. It's unbounded out there. One film takes you into one area, another film takes you into another area. There could be trillions, zillions of worlds that exist in the big space. — David Lynch

Speaking in front of a large crowd is not pleasant. Once it gets rolling, it's okay. But beforehand, it's murder. — David Lynch

All my movies are about strange worlds that you can't go into unless you build them and film them. That's what's so important about film to me. I just like going into strange worlds. — David Lynch

In my mind it's so much fun to have something that has clues and is mysterious - something that is understood intuitively rather than just being spoon-fed to you. That's the beauty of cinema, and it's hardly ever even tried. These days, most films are pretty easily understood, and so people's minds stop working. — David Lynch

I'm Waiting Here"

feat. Lykke Li


I'm waiting here

Can't we draw never fulfill these here
I move nowhere only to find you here
Your deepest hell, never the same as them
Keep me low where the horizon melts

I'm waiting here

We made love
Under a dark moon
I've burned a lot of bridges
Some castles were made of sand
Only then

Can I alone look at the sky my dear
I am right, every falling star
Make a wish, it will turn away
So we can love on til infinity

Here
I'm waiting here

Here
I'm waiting here — David Lynch

So much of what happened to me is good fortune. But I would say: Try to get a job that gives you some time; get your sleep and a little bit of food; and work as much as you can. There's so much enjoyment in doing what you love. Maybe this will open doors, and you'll find a way to do what you love. — David Lynch

Building a set is like building a place, but it's a temporary place, because sets usually get torn down. Kind of unfortunate. — David Lynch

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

Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all. — David Lynch

Being in darkness and confusion is interesting to me. But behind it you can rise out of that and see things the way the really are. That there is some sort of truth to the whole thing, if you could just get to that point where you could see it, and live it, and feel it ... I think it is a long, long, way off. In the meantime there's suffering and darkness and confusion and absurdities, and it's people kind of going in circles. It's fantastic. It's like a strange carnival: it's a lot of fun, but it's a lot of pain. — David Lynch

Surface cures are not going to get rid of the torment that's inside. — David Lynch

I love paint. I like watercolours. I like acrylic paint ... a little bit. I like house paint. I like oil-based paint, and I love oil paint. I love the smell of turpentine and I like that world of oil paint very, very, very much. — David Lynch

The big treasury is an ocean of infinite creativity. It's a creativity that creates everything that is a thing - it's mighty powerful creativity. — David Lynch

I have to make what I see, whether it's a painting, a table, or a movie, or it's like a death and what would be the point of that? — David Lynch

Meditation is not a selfish thing. Even though you're diving in and experiencing the Self, you're not closing yourself off from the world. You're strengthening yourself, so that you can be more effective when you go back into the world. — David Lynch

Sometimes I get an idea for cinema. And when you get an idea that you fall in love with, this is a glorious day. — David Lynch

In film, life-and-death struggles make you sit up, lean forward a little bit. They amplify things happening, in smaller ways, in all of us. These things show up in relationships. They show up in struggles and bring them to a critical point. — David Lynch

If you have a golf-ball-sized consciousness, when you read a book, you'll have a golf-ball-sized understanding; when you look out a window, a golf-ball-sized awareness, when you wake up in the morning, a golf-ball-sized wakefulness; and as you go about your day, a golf-ball-sized inner happiness. But if you can expand that consciousness, make it grow, then when you read about that book, you'll have more understanding; when you look out, more awareness; when you wake up, more wakefulness; as you go about your day, more inner happiness. — David Lynch

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. — David Lynch

Transcendental Meditation is not a religion, it's not against any religion, it's for human beings, no matter what color, what religion, what walk of life. If you're a human being, it will work for you. And you will be very glad you found this technique and took advantage of it. — David Lynch

I like the saying: "The world is as you are." And I think films are as you are. That's why, although the frames of a film are always the same
the same number, in the same sequence, with the same sounds
every screening is different. The difference is sometimes subtle but it's there. It depends on the audience. There is a circle that goes from the audience to the film and back. Each person is looking and thinking and feeling and coming up with his or her own sense of things. And it's probably different from what I fell in love with. — David Lynch

When you do something that works you have a happiness, but I don't know if it's a feeling of power. Power is a frightening thing and that's not what I'm interested in. I want to do certain things and make them right in my mind and that's it. — David Lynch

I didn't 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 can't do in film is make a continuing story - which is so cool! — David Lynch

Transcendental meditation is like a car, a vehicle that allows you to go within. It's a mental technique. — David Lynch

I thought when I started meditation that I was going to get real calm and peaceful and it's going to be over. It's not that way; it's so energetic. That's where all the energy and creativity is. — David Lynch

Negativity is the enemy of creativity. — David Lynch

I don't think anybody really loves the sound of their own voice, but the tweakability is huge. — David Lynch

Two half hitches around the horn will hold the devil as sure as you're born. — David Lynch

Eraserhead is my most spiritual movie. No one understands when I say that, but it is. — David Lynch

The ideas dictate everything. — David Lynch

I have no problem getting financing. I have a problem catching ideas that I fall in love with for the next feature. — David Lynch

This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top. — David Lynch

I love child things because there's so much mystery when you're a child. — David Lynch

Some things we forget. But many things we remember on the mental screen, which is the biggest screen of all. — David Lynch

I didn't know anything about film when I first started - I was a painter - but I [always] felt that sound was just as important as the picture. The sound, picture, and ideas have to marry. If an idea carries with it a mood, sound is critical to making that mood. — David Lynch

I let the actors work out their ideas before shooting, then tell them what attitudes I want. If a scene isn't honest, it stands out like a sore thumb. — David Lynch

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

The more unknowable the mystery, the more beautiful it is. — David Lynch

I love going into another world, and I love mysteries. So I don't really like to know very much ahead of time. I like the feeling of dicovery. — David Lynch

These growth hormones, where can I get a bunch of them? Is there some way that, with electricity, you could stimulate your own growth hormones? Plug yourself in for five minutes, there'd be a little jolt, but you'd get used to it. It wouldn't be bad at all; in fact, you'd get to enjoy it, probably. Then away you'd go, and youth wouldn't be wasted on the young anymore. You'd be 25, with a 95-year-old mind. Granddad would start breaking into liquor stores and staying out late. Hope we have it soon! — David Lynch

Mystery is the number one conjurer of ideas. — David Lynch

Someday, hopefully very soon, 'diving within' as a preparation for learning and as a tool for developing the creative potential of the mind will be a standard part of every school's curriculum. — David Lynch

Music has fed me a lot of ideas ... The film BLUE VELVET came out of Bobby Vinton's version of the song BLUE VELVET. — David Lynch

My mother refused to give me coloring books as a child. She probably saved me, Because when you think about it, what a coloring book does is completely kill creativity. — David Lynch

We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experience is a narrowing of the imagination. — David Lynch

Everybody's got creativity. Dive within to the ocean of infinite creativity. — David Lynch

I would rather not make a film than make one where I don't have final cut. — David Lynch

You could say that spirituality is bliss, and bliss is physical happiness, emotional happiness, mental happiness, and spiritual happiness. And it's intense. It's an intense happiness. It brings you together with everything. — David Lynch

Intuition is seeing the solution.....its emotion and intellect going together. — David Lynch

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. — David Lynch

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. — David Lynch

Humor is very interesting to me. My films are not comedies, but there's comedy in them from time to time, absurdities, just like in real life. — David Lynch

I don't 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. — David Lynch

Forget being the best of anything. That's the fruit of the action, and you do the work -they say- for the doing, not the fruit. You can never really know how it's gonna turn out in the world but you know if you enjoy doing it. And ideas start flowing and you start getting, you know, excited about stuff. Then you're having a great time in the doing and that's what it's all about. If you don't enjoy the doing, then do something else. — David Lynch

Desire for an idea is like bait. When you're fishing, you have to have patience. You bait your hook, and then you wait. The desire is the bait that pulls those fish in-those ideas. — David Lynch

Anger, stress, tension, depression, sorrow, hate, fear - these things start to retreat. And for a filmmaker, having this negativity lift away is money in the bank. When you're suffering you can't create. — David Lynch

I don't like Thomas Edison. I'm a fan of Nicolai Tesla. — David Lynch

If the people in a relationship were able to get rid of this torment within and replace it with happiness, love, and a sense of well-being, they would never think to hurt another human being. They would be filled with an understanding of others and an appreciation of others and have an ability to reconcile differences without any violence whatsoever, to reconcile differences in a very loving way, a very happy way. — David Lynch

Individual peace is the unit of world peace. — David Lynch

When you get an idea, so many things come in that one moment. You could write the sound of that idea, or the sound of the room it's in. You could write the clothes the character is wearing, what they're saying, how they move, what they look like. Instead of making up, you're actually catching an idea, for a story, characters, place, and mood - all the stuff that comes. — David Lynch

I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath. — David Lynch

I was raised Presbyterian, but I'm not really going to church. I think the experience in meditation is pretty much where it's at for me. — David Lynch

A film - especially when it's a personal film - is going to hit somebody or it's not. There's nothing you can do about it. — David Lynch

Every time I hear sounds, I see pictures. Then, I start getting ideas. It just drives me crazy — David Lynch

The interesting thing that happens for many people when they first start meditating is that they'll be doing it for a few months, and they will begin to change, but the experience is so subtle that they're not even aware of it. — David Lynch

There is an ocean of pure vibrant consciousness inside each one of us. — David Lynch

I find the joy of the 'doing' increases. Creativity increases. Intuition increases. The pleasure of life grows. And negativity recedes. — David Lynch

Been trying the soapy water and instant coffee method. Works somewhat, but boy it tastes terrible. I don't know how you guys can stand it. I'm going back to milk and espresso for my cappas. — David Lynch

One change of attitude would change everything. If everyone realized that it could be a beautiful world and said, 'let's not do these things anymore - let's have fun.' — David Lynch