Quotes By David Lynch

Absurdity is what I like most in life, and there's 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.

See, a painting is much cheaper than making a film. And photography is, you know, way cheap. So if I get an idea for a film, there are many ways to get it together and go realise that film. There's really nothing to be afraid of.

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.

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.

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

To me, a story can be both concrete and abstract, or a concrete story can hold abstractions. And abstractions are things that really can't be said so well with words.

Digital video is so beautiful. It's lightweight, modern, and it's only getting better. It's put film into the La Brea Tar Pits.

I like things to be orderly.

You're right on the money with that. We're all like detectives in life. There's something at the end of the trail that we're all looking for.

Sex is a doorway to something so powerful and mystical, but movies usually depict it in a completely flat way.

Somewhere in talking and rehearsing, there is a magical moment where actors catch a current, they're on the right road. If they really catch it, then whatever they do from then on is correct and it all comes out of them from that point on.

It makes me uncomfortable to talk about meanings and things. It's better not to know so much about what things mean. Because the meaning, it's a very personal thing, and the meaning for me is different than the meaning for somebody else.

I like cappuccino, actually. But even a bad cup of coffee is better than no coffee at all.

There are only 24 hours in a day, and my top priority is working on my films, but I love short film experiments.

I supported myself by delivering the 'Wall Street Journal' and doing odd jobs. I love plumbing and carpentry.

Francis Bacon is one of my giant inspirations. I just love him to pieces.

The ideas dictate everything, you have to be true to that or you're dead.

Everyone is on the internet but they're not all talking with each other. There are groups upon groups out there, but they don't talk to one another. So while the internet brings everyone into a shared space, it does not necessarily bring them together.

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

Life is very, very complicated, and so films should be allowed to be, too.

I think that ideas exist outside of ourselves. I think somewhere, we're all connected off in some very abstract land. But somewhere between there and here ideas exist.

If we didn't 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.

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!

My cow is not pretty, but it is pretty to me.

The business side of film has goofed up so many things, but even that's changing. It happened to the music industry and now it's happening to the film studios. It's crazy what's going on. But artists should have control of their work; especially if, as I always say, you never turn down a good idea and never take a bad idea.

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

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

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

Television provides the opportunity for an ongoing story - the opportunity to meld the cast and the characters and a world, and to spend more time there.