David Lynch quotes

David Lynch is an American filmmaker, artist, and musician, celebrated for his surreal and innovative storytelling style. His works often blend dreamlike imagery with elements of mystery and psychological drama. He has influenced generations of filmmakers and continues to be a visionary in the world of cinema. Here are 156 of his quotes:

My cow is not pretty, but it's pretty to me. (David Lynch)

I don't think about technique. The ideas dictate everything. You have to be true to that or you're dead.

David Lynch

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

David Lynch

The ocean of solutions is within, enliven that. ... It's a world of clues, a world of mystery but the mystery can get solved, you can find a lot of answers for these things within.

David Lynch

When I was little in Spokane, Washington I drew all the time... and my father would bring paper home... and I mostly drew browning automatic water-cooled sub-machine guns... that was my favorite.

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

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

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

David Lynch

A film is its own thing and in an ideal world I think a film should be discovered knowing nothing and nothing should be added to it and nothing should be subtracted from it.

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.

David Lynch

The worst thing about this modern world is that people think you get killed on television with zero pain and zero blood. It must enter into kids' heads that it's not very messy to kill somebody, and it doesn't hurt that much. That's a real sickness to me. That's a real sick thing. (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

I don't think that people accept the fact that life doesn't make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable.

David Lynch

Every single thing in the world that was made by anyone started with an idea. So to catch one that is powerful enough to fall in love with, it is one of the most beautiful experiences. It's like being jolted with electricity and knowledge at the same time.

David Lynch

All the 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

I don't think it was pain that made [Vincent Van Gogh] great - I think his painting brought him whatever happiness he had.

David Lynch

Black has depth.. you can go into it.. And you start seeing what you're afraid of. You start seeing what you love, and it becomes like a dream.

David Lynch

It's so freeing, it's beautiful in a way, to have a great failure, there's nowhere to go but up.

David Lynch

I hate slick and pretty things. I prefer mistakes and accidents. Which is why I like things like cuts and bruises - they're like little flowers. I've always said that if you have a name for something, like 'cut' or 'bruise,' people will automatically be disturbed by it. But when you see the same thing in nature, and you don't know what it is, it can be very beautiful.

David Lynch

When I first heard about meditation, I had zero interest in it. I wasn't even curious. It sounded like a waste of time. What got me interested, though, was the phrase "true happiness lies within." At first I thought it sounded kind of mean, because it doesn't tell you where the "within" is, or how to get there. But still it had a ring of truth. And I began to think that maybe meditation was a way to go within.

David Lynch

Stay true to yourself. Let your voice ring out, and don't let anybody fiddle with it. Never turn down a good idea, but never take a bad idea. And meditate. It's very important to experience that Self, that pure consciousness. It's really helped me. I think it would help any filmmaker. So start diving within, enlivening that bliss consciousness. Grow in happiness and intuition. Experience the joy of doing. And you'll glow in this peaceful way. Your friends will be very, very happy with you. Everyone will want to sit next to you. And people will give you money! (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

Absurdity is what I like most in life.

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

Float with me in the world of ether.

David Lynch

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David Lynch

David Lynch - Image

Photo: Alan Light, CC BY 2.0

Occupation: American Filmmaker
Born: January 20, 1946
Died: January 16, 2025
Quotes count: 156
Wikipedia: David Lynch

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