David Lynch Tells GQ His Secrets to Happiness

On October 13, 2020, David Lynch rose and did what he had typically been doing each morning when he awoke during a long-term Covid isolation in his house and work studio just off Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills. First, while filming himself for his YouTube channel, he swirled ten numbered balls in a large glass jar, his eyes averted, then picked one. “Today’s number is ten,” he declared. Then he filmed his daily weather report, in which he would combine temperature readings with observations made by craning his neck and looking through the windows above toward the sky: “Here in LA, clear morning, but not still, a warm breeze blowing through…Today, I’m thinking about Sparklehorse, and his song ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’…and it looks like, right from the get-go, we’re going to be enjoying those beautiful blue skies and golden sunshine, all along the way…” His tone, as he said all this, was typically clipped and laidback, but also somehow imbued with the delight of someone who might have been discovering for the first time ever that there will be weather today.

That done, he got busy in his workshop, where he was busy making art, including a sculptural piece which featured a painting of a bird on a triangular piece of plywood mounted to a metal base, next to a vertical light fitting shrouded in a vertical red tube—in a world where nothing was normal, I guess it might be considered some kind of desk lamp. (Later that day, he’d film a video about this, too).

In between all that, he took a call from GQ.

We'd never spoken before, but he addressed me by my first name throughout our conversation. After I asked a first question, he said “Okay”, and chuckled in as David Lynch a way as you could have imagined. “You’re doing a thing on happiness, right?” he asked. I confirmed this. “That’s great,” he said. “You know, we’re all really interested in happiness.” And then he launched into a kind of statement, or explanation, that you could tell he had spoken, in some version or other, many times before: “You know, I just want to tell people, and you, that the phrase that got me practicing transcendental meditation was ‘True happiness is not out there. True happiness lies within’. And that phrase had a ring of truth to it for me. But the phrase doesn't tell you where the ‘within’ is nor how to get there. So, I always say, it was a very frustrating phrase to me.

“And one day it struck me that maybe meditation was a way to go within and find that happiness. And this led me to look into many different forms of meditation because there's a hundred different forms out there in the world today. And I finally found and loved Transcendental Meditation, as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, revived by Maharishi, an ancient form of meditation. Now I know where the within is and now I know how to get there, and that's where the true happiness is. The happiness you bring out from there doesn't dissipate, doesn't go away. It just grows by transcending every day. Every time a human being transcends, they get more of that happiness.”

At the end of this declaration, I half expected him to chuckle a second time and announce that we were done. But, thankfully, he didn’t. And though Lynch’s heartfelt belief in the transformative power of T.M. (which he had been practicing since 1973), and his keenness to proselytize about its benefits, was something he would periodically circle back toward as we talked, he would end up saying so much else. Some of what he would say appeared, with nine other voices, in the eventual article, “The Happiness Project,” published in early 2021. But much, inevitably, did not. And, in the wake of his death, it feels appropriate to share more completely what Lynch shared that day, often in his own wondrously idiosyncratic way.

Sometimes it’s the simplest questions that allow someone to say the most about who they are and who they have been and who they wish to be. This felt like one of those conversations.

David Lynch: I was happy from the get-go. I was a happy kid. I don't remember not really being happy, until I got to be high school age. And then I started getting a lot of melancholy and sort of depression and anxieties and all kinds of worries. I think it's natural. I just got filled with killer bees, you know. My first meditation, though, I experienced big, big, big bliss. Big happiness.

GQ: So would that be the answer to that very first question I asked, about when you were at your happiest?

It could be. It could be. It could be. It's a little bit wrong. Because I transcended before I learned to meditate, but I didn't know what it was. And I didn't know how to do it again. But it's true, there is this bliss within us—and it's just real important for people to know that.

What were the specific things that used to make you happy when you were a child?

Freshly-mown lawn smell. Sunshine. Trees. Friends. A feeling in the air of optimism. Beautiful automobiles. Girls. A girl's face. A smile. A sparkle in the eye. The shape...the smell...the dream. Daydreaming. Daydreaming on a warm summer's day with planes in the sky, drone propeller planes, big propeller planes droning in the sky, with blue skies, sunshine, and being with my friends, carving weapons out of wood, working with wood, working with wood and smelling wood, drawing, drawing pictures, and discovering things like insects in the earth or in the grass and watching them—watching nature.

Wow. I want to go back to your childhood. Have you got happier or less happy as you’ve grown older?

Now, it's very important, Chris, that you listen to this answer, and you tell people about this.

Sure.

I've gotten happier and happier because I have a technique that allows me to transcend every day and experience that field of unbounded bliss within. And this field is within every human being, Chris. We're built for this business of transcending. We're human beings with a specific nervous system that's built to transcend. Everybody should know about it.

What do you think happiness is?

What do I think it is? A fulfillment of a desire gives you happiness.

And how important do you think it is?

I think it's extremely important. You know they say, human beings are not made to be suffering. Bliss is our nature. We're supposed to be happy. We're not supposed to be sad. We're not supposed to be suffering. We're supposed to be happy campers enjoying life. And, you know, being kind to one another, and getting along, and making sure that we're all happy and we're all together on this trip. Beautiful trip.

Can you describe what happiness feels like?

That’s a great, great, important question. Super important question. This bliss that comes from within is physical happiness. It's like when you get a massage—you can vibrate in happiness. Physical happiness, it's a vibration. The body is just humming in happiness. And then it's also emotional happiness. So you get thrilling emotion with it. Now you're physically happy, you're emotionally happy. Then mentally you're just singing mentally in happiness. And then it's a spiritual feeling as well. So it's four different kind of happiness is happening at once. This is a power of this bliss that comes from within!

On a more sort of specific day to day level can you tell me some things, whether large or small, that make you personally happy?

I'm just, you know, kind of happy in the doing of things. Even just having a great cup of coffee is happiness. Getting an idea, or realizing an idea. Working on a painting or working on a piece of sculpture. Working on a film. One thing I noticed is that many of us, we do what we call work for a goal. For a result. And in the doing, it's not that much happiness. And yet that's our life going by. If you're transcending every day, building up that happiness, it eventually comes to: it doesn't matter what your work is. You just get happy in the work. You get happy in the little things and the big things. And if the result isn't what you dreamed of, it doesn't kill you, if you enjoyed the doing of it. It's important that we enjoy the doing of our life.

When were you happiest in the last year?

Let's see. Well, kind of every day. Like I said, it doesn't go away - this is a sort of a thing you carry around with you. I like isolation. I've been isolated, you know, for six months or seven months now, however long it's been. At the same time, you can be happy inside and still worried about the world. I'm worried about the world as it is right now, so many people suffering and so much negativity. But I believe that we are in a transition to a very good time, but we don't know how long the transition's going to last. But I'm, honestly, you know, happy every day.

There must be times when you're less happy than other times—or are you completely immune to that because of your practice?

Well, see, now, this is a trick question in a way. There are times when I'm a little bit less happy. When I realize what a tough time it is in the world it makes me a little less happy than I would like to be. But at the same time, people should know that the happiness you get from within is sort of like a flak jacket, I say. It's a protection against the stress. A protection against the negativity. It protects you and it keeps you pretty much evenly happy, seeing a more optimistic picture: that everything is OK, everything will be OK.

Are you more creative when you're happy or unhappy?

You're just as creative when you're miserable, but you don't feel like creating when you're miserable. I always use the example of the starving artist in the garret, which I think started in France. And it's a very romantic idea. Maybe, I say, a way to get girls—you know, they come and help you out, bring you soup, or maybe spend the night. But for the starving artist, freezing in the garret, it's not romantic, Chris. It's romantic for everybody else maybe, but not for the guy who's freezing and hungry in the garret. And when you're depressed, hungry and cold, you don't feel like making stuff. Your ideas don't flow so much. You're worried, you're cold, you're depressed. So negativity, to my mind, is the enemy of creativity. When you're really happy, filled with energy, and you've got those ideas flowing, it's so beautiful. You want to work. You want to realize those ideas, translate those ideas to one medium or another. And that's the ticket.

You had your version of that starving artist period when you were young, right?

Yeah, I did. And you know, again: if you're the starving artist in the garret and you start diving within everyday, transcending, bringing that happiness out, this will help you so much. You'll start getting ideas to get a heater in your garret. You'll start getting ideas to fix the place up. And you'll start getting more enthusiastic, you'll get more energy, you'll get the ideas flowing, you'll get happier in the doing, you'll get filled with a kind of love, universal love. The world looks better and better, you get this kind of inner peace going. It's like, you know, you just feel good in your body. You feel like working. And you'll still get many, many girls!

As you obviously know, some people believe that creativity is somehow linked to their dissatisfaction or their troubledness.

Exactly. Exactly. Like I always say, you've got to understand suffering. But the artist doesn't have to suffer to create. That's the thing. The more you're suffering, the less you're going to be able to do. But you've got to understand the whole thing of the human condition, this suffering and all this stuff. And then you can do something about it.

But did I read correctly that right at the beginning of you discovering this practice, you had some fears along these lines yourself—that maybe it would take something away from you rather than give you something?

Yeah. Yeah, that's very important, Chris. Artists, so many people say, “Screw that, man—I want to make up my own form of meditation, man”. And they invent something for themselves. Some people say: “My meditation is laying on the beach, my meditation is jogging, my meditation is listening to music”. That's not meditation, in the real word. Meditation is a technique to dive within. And what they've found with brain research is that concentration forms keep you near the surface, contemplation forms give you some relaxation but keep you near the surface, Transcendental Meditation, this ancient form brought back for today, takes you to deeper levels of mind, deeper levels of intellect, and at the border of intellect, boom! You transcend. You truly experience this eternal level. It's always been there. It's the big Self with a capital “S”. It's the kingdom of heaven. It's modern science's unified field, ocean of pure consciousness, home of all the laws of nature! It's a field. It's unbounded bliss, unbounded creativity, unbounded love, unbounded happiness, unbounded energy, unbounded peace within every human being. This is the ticket. This is what you want.

As you know, people perceive a disconnect between the kind of art you make and this level of happiness you have...

Right, so there goes another thing: artists are worried about losing their edge. I worried about that. I said, “I don't want to join any club, I don't want to get a technique that everybody else has." And then it hit me. Wait a minute. Why am I so special? This thing works. It's like taking an aspirin—it gets rid of your headache. “Take T.M.—this will allow you to transcend.” I worried about an edge. I didn't want to become calm and just be like a dolt, just sitting around, not really wanting to work, eating raisins and nuts. And so I worried about this. But you'll get more of an edge. There's unbounded energy there within us. That’s a lot of energy! You still can get righteous anger. And be for or against something very powerfully. And you can still get sad. But you can't...it won't last, you know, it just goes away. You can still get depressed for a while but it doesn't last. It just comes and it goes. You don't get numb to things—you just feel everything.

And can you explain to people why there's no contradiction between having this kind of happiness in your creative process, in your life and in still being able to make art that can go to all kinds of difficult places?

Yeah, I'll try to explain that. Because, you know, I use the example of stories. Stories have been told throughout time, and stories will be told throughout time. And we're all different on the surface, so I'm going to fall in love with certain things. And I always say for cinema I fall in love…one, because of the idea itself, and two, because of the way I think cinema could say that idea. And when those two things are green lights, I go. Stories are not just happy from beginning to end. People would fall asleep! It might be great for a sleep aid, but they would not go to see the movie. Stories have conflicts, contrast, highs and lows. But it's the ideas you fall in love with that drive the boat. Love drives the boat! So I get these ideas I love, and I want to realize them in one medium or another. And that's what makes me happy. And I figure if I translate them in a way that works for me, maybe they'll work for others. You can't guarantee that. But that's what you think. So consequently those films I've made have been made. And, you know, some people like them and some people don't. But I like them. And I loved making them.

Is there a song that always makes you happy?

Oh, man, so many songs just thrill me to the core. So many songs. Music is a huge emotional rush. Sometimes a thrill beyond the beyond.

Are there two or three examples that come off the top of your head?

Yeah. Oh, let's see. I don't know the name of it. Ricard Strauss [sic–Lynch pronounced the composer’s name with a pronounced hard “c,” although it’s pronounced “Richard” with a “ch” in both English and German], the first one of the Four Last Songs [“At Sunset,” aka “Im Abendrot”]—it was in Wild at Heart. Just put that music on loud and I could start crying. It's so beautiful. There's a bunch of things. “Adagio for Strings” by Samuel Barber—Andre Previn's version. And let's see. “Song To The Siren” by This Mortal Coil. Elizabeth Fraser drives me crazy. There are so many pieces of music, I just burst into tears, it's so beautiful.

Can you tell me some other works of art that make you happy?

Francis Bacon makes me happy, the power of his painting. Edward Hopper makes me thrilled. Edward Kienholz's sculptures make me happy. Let’s see. Alexander Calder's sculptures make me thrilled with happiness. Let's see. Vincent Van Gogh makes me happy. There's a bunch - there's so many great painters and sculptors that's just great.

And within those, can you describe what makes you happy? Because they're not all obviously joyous works of art. Some of them are very dark and complicated.

It's an abstract thing. When you look at something, so many things are happening that enter you. And they enter into your mind and they churn around, and the result is something. You either don't like it or you like it a little bit or you're thrilled with it. A painting can be very abstract, what it does to a person - it's hard to put it into words. But it happens. I always say: a painting remains the same, but every viewer that goes up and stands in front of it, they get something different.

Are there any items of clothing that make you happier when you wear them?

Yes, absolutely. I am searching for a good pair of pants. I never found a pair of pants that I just love. I like comfortable pants and clothes I can work in that I feel comfortable in. I don't really like to get dressed up. I like to wear the same thing every day and feel comfortable.

And, beyond comfort, can you work out what the missing pair of pants needs to have?

It's a fit. It's a certain kind of feeling. And if they're not right, which they never are, it's a sadness. You know, it interrupts the flow of happiness.

Well, soon, I hope.

I hope—I'm working on it, believe me.

One more abstract question: can someone be too happy?

No. The only problem is having too little of it. That's the problem for people. You can never get too much.

So what will you do the rest of today?

Today I'm working on two different paintings. That's probably it for me today, working on these paintings. They involve, you know, painting and sculpture a little bit. Both. It's a combo. That's what I'm into right now. It's more like three-dimensional paintings. I've already done my weather report and picked the number of the day.

Well, this is incredibly helpful and valuable for what I'm doing—thank you. Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?

No, just tell everybody about this technique. It'll save their life and they'll never be sorry. And wish everybody well for me. And the same to you, Chris.

And to you. Thank you.

OK, good deal, buddy. Bye bye.