Rejoice, David Lynch fans: Two new interviews with the enigmatic filmmaker and artist in support of his new sorta-memoir, Room To Dream, dropped over the last few days, one with The Guardian and one with Vulture. Both are lovely, frustrating, and often hilarious, much like the man’s work.
The Guardian piece has already made some waves due to Lynch’s comments that Donald Trump, who he doesn’t implicitly support (he campaigned for Bernie), could end up being “one of the greatest presidents in history” due to his “disruption” of the political game, but there’s so much other stuff to mine here, much of which we’ve outlined below.
Up top, however, we’ll just reveal that Lynch seems to have lost all interest in movie making. “I would not make a feature film in today’s world because the kind of films I make couldn’t be on the big screen for very long,” he told The Guardian. The interview goes on to note that Lynch is more interested in television, “a medium that is more comfortable with loose ends and narrative culs-de-sac, where he can tell a ‘continuing story.'”
Scroll down for more of his thoughts on the possibility of more upcoming projects, why he won’t explain his films, whether or not he reads Twin Peaks fan theories, and how much he loves electric toilets. Unfortunately, there’s no more elaboration on his Carrie Page comments from last week, sparking rumors of further episodes of the series.
On whether he’s got any new films or series in mind:
“Not right now. I’ve got these boxes of ideas and I’m starting to go through them to see if there’s any gold. I could go into film or TV again but Twin Peaks [The Return] took almost five years with the writing and preproduction, shooting, post-. I would want to do another series but it’d involve finding the time. So we’ll see.
On how he gets ideas:
“They’re like fish. If you get an idea that’s thrilling to you, put your attention on it and these other fish will swim into it. It’s like a bait. They’ll hook on to it and you’ll get more ideas. And you just pull them in.”
On explaining his films:
“I don’t ever explain it. Because it’s not a word thing. It would reduce it, make it smaller.” […] “When you finish anything, people want you to then talk about it. And I think it’s almost like a crime. A film or a painting – each thing is its own sort of language and it’s not right to try to say the same thing in words. The words are not there. The language of film, cinema, is the language it was put into, and the English language – it’s not going to translate. It’s going to lose.”
On whether he reads peoples’ Twin Peaks theories:
“Not really. If I did look at it, I probably would love it. People are thinkers. People are detectives and we have life to find clues about in the same way we would with a piece of cinema. You see something and it can conjure so many thoughts and interpretations. That’s why I don’t like to talk about my own intentions, because everyone else’s interpretation is so great.”
On Donald Trump:
“He could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way,” Lynch told The Guardian. He apparently doesn’t think Trump is doing a good job, but he apparently sees value in the way Trump has exposed the weaknesses of modern politicians. “Our so-called leaders can’t take the country forward, can’t get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this.”
On whether an artist’s life affect our attitudes about the artist’s work:
“I would hope it doesn’t. Louis C.K.’s done a lot of really funny stuff. It would be a shame for people not to experience those things anymore. There are probably thousands and thousands of examples of people who had screwed-up lives and didn’t do the best things but did great work. And Roman Polanski: People were writing things about him when he went to Switzerland and got arrested — things like he should be hung. Things get a little out of hand. You feel terrible for anyone who’s been a victim. This subject is tricky business.
[…]
And political correctness came in. I don’t know if that’s a good thing. You can’t make laws to change people. Transcendental Meditation is the only thing I know of that over time would change people for the good on the deepest level. But when you have it where being politically correct means you can’t say certain things anymore but people still think them — like, there’s still plenty of racism, and I don’t know if it’d be good to have racist jokes that get things out in the open so we can deal with it. I don’t know if that might be better. But now everything is closed in, and people still have strange desires that are not fitting in with today’s life. I feel so bad for those people. It’s ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’ Or pedophiles: They’re born and they’ve got this sickness that they don’t know how to deal with. Instead of repressing it we need to get people help so no one gets hurt.”
On the state of the world:
“There’s the news that we hear on CNN, and it would lead you to believe we’re not doing too well. But I believe we’re in transition to a great time on Earth. I believe that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi brought technologies for the enlightenment of individuals and for peace on Earth. Peace comes from the unified field. Higher states of consciousness, more and more happiness, culminating in enlightenment, come from that field, which is within everyone. It’s a real thing and this time we’re living in could be so beautiful. It’s headed that way.”
On some vegetarian chips he had on Jet Blue:
“I’m trying to find those chips. I don’t know what they were. The flavor was incredible. Unbelievably good! […] They were beige and brown. They were lighter, with some gray-brown spots in them. I got two bags; I asked the stewardess if I could have a second because they were so good. Michael, my assistant, has gotten three or four different bags of chips since I had those and we’re still trying to find the right ones.”
On electric toilets:
“These electric toilets are so beautiful… I’d always wanted one of these electric toilets and it’s the most fantastic thing. It’s so well-thought-out. It’s modern technology at work — for a toilet! It’s got this great lavender-blue lamplight. It washes you. It dries you. It’s the whole thing.”
On the Eraserhead baby:
“I don’t talk about the baby.”
On actor Glenn Ford:
“Glenn Ford was a fucker, man.”
