David Lynch needs oxygen to walk after smoking from age 8 to 76

David Lynch has enjoyed smoking for nearly a lifetime, but his habit has caused some serious health issues.

The Mulholland Drive filmmaker, who began smoking at age 8 and quit at 76, says he now needs supplemental oxygen for any physical activity beyond a walk across the room following his 2020 emphysema diagnosis.

“In the back of every smoker’s mind is the fact that it’s healthy, so you’re literally playing with fire,” he told PEOPLE in a new interview. “It can bite you. I took a chance, and I got bit.”

Lynch wasn’t able to fully kick cigarettes until two years after his diagnosis. “I saw the writing on the wall, and it said, ‘You’re going to die in a week if you don’t stop,'” the Twin Peaks mastermind said. “I could hardly move without gasping for air. Quitting was my only choice.”

His condition, which causes intense shortness of breath, means that he won’t be able to return to directing on set — though he may explore directing remotely. “It’s tough living with emphysema,” Lynch said. “I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head.”

Lynch also revealed that he rarely leaves the house at this point. “I never really liked going out before, so it’s a nice excuse,” he joked. Still, if he could do it all over again, he probably wouldn’t have given up smoking any sooner. “I don’t regret it. It was important to me. I wish what every addict wishes for: that what we love is good for us.”

He continued, “I loved the smell of tobacco, the taste of tobacco. I loved lighting cigarettes. It was part of being a painter and a filmmaker for me.” He also noted that he sees no issue with depicting smoking on screen: “I never thought about it as glamorizing it,” he said. “It was a part of life. Some characters would be smokers, just like in real life.”

But he hopes his story will inspire other smokers to quit before it’s too late. “I really wanted to get this across: Think about it. You can quit these things that are going to end up killing you,” he said. “I owe it to them — and to myself — to say that.”

Lynch’s last feature film was 2006’s Inland Empire, which reunited him with frequent collaborator Laura Dern in a nightmarish, nonlinear saga set against the backdrop of a cursed Hollywood production. His last major directorial project was 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return, an 18-episode Showtime follow-up to the ABC mystery-drama that made him a household name in the early ’90s. An occasional actor, Lynch made his last screen appearance in a one-scene performance in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans in 2022. 

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