‘I can hardly walk across a room’: David Lynch urges smokers to quit after emphysema diagnosis

The Twin Peaks director, who began smoking at eight, says he ‘saw the writing on the wall and it said, “You’re going to die in a week if you don’t stop”’

The film-maker and lifelong smoker David Lynch has spoken out about the dangers of the habit, revealing he started smoking at the age of eight and now needs supplemental oxygen even to walk small distances.

In August, the Twin Peaks director revealed that he had been diagnosed with emphysema, a chronic lung condition that causes shortness of breath. In a short statement on X at the time, he wrote: “I enjoyed smoking very much … but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema.”