David Lynch reveals emphysema makes it difficult to walk across a room

Forget package warnings: David Lynch is taking the anti-smoking campaign into his own hands.
In an interview with People published Thursday, the “Twin Peaks” co-creator revealed he needs supplemental oxygen to do anything more physically demanding than walking across a room.
“I really wanted to get this across: Think about it. You can quit these things that are going to end up killing you,” Lynch told the magazine. “I owe it to them — and to myself — to say that.”
The “Mulholland Drive” director revealed earlier this year that he was diagnosed with emphysema, a lung disease caused primarily by smoking, in 2020. After the announcement in Sight and Sound magazine, he wrote on X: “there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema.”
Despite its health concerns, Lynch told People he doesn’t regret smoking. “It was important to me. I wish what every addict wishes for: that what we love is good for us,” he said.
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Lynch, whose projects often include characters with a cigarette in their hands, revealed he began smoking at just 8 years old, stopping only two years ago when he “saw the writing on the wall.”
“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,” Lynch said.
News of his quitting comes as the use of tobacco continues to wane among young people. A recent Centers for Disease Control study indicated that high school and middle school-aged kids are consuming less tobacco than they have in a generation, fueled in part by a dropoff in e-cigarette use.
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There is, however, a spike in popularity for nicotine pouches like Zyn, which rose to become the second-most popular form of tobacco for children, the study revealed.
Lynch testified to the difficulty of calling it quits after years of smoking. “When it got tough, I’d have that first cigarette, and it was a one-way trip to heaven,” he told People.