Video: David Lynch on Where Ideas Come From

Story wisdom from the writer-director of such notable movies as Blue Velvet, Elephant Man, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Dr.

Two videos featuring Lynch opining about where story ideas come from.

Quote: “Ideas are like fish. You don’t make the fish, you catch the fish.”

Quote: “Desiring an idea is like bait on a hook. And if you catch an idea you love, that’s a beautiful day.”

One way to bait the hook? This from another interview with Lynch:

“For seven years I ate at Bob’s Big Boy. I would go at 2:30, after the lunch rush. I ate a chocolate shake and four, five, six, seven cups of coffee — with lots of sugar. And there’s lots of sugar in that chocolate shake. It’s a thick shake. In a silver goblet. I would get a rush from all this sugar, and I would get so many ideas! I would write them on these napkins. It was like I had a desk with paper. All I had to do was remember to bring my pen, but a waitress would give me one if I remembered to return it at the end of my stay. I got a lot of ideas at Bob’s.”

What to do with those ideas? From the same interview:

‘’If you want to make a feature film, you get ideas for 70 scenes. Put them on 3-by-5 cards. As soon as you have 70, you have a feature film.’’

For the rest of that interview, go here.

Now go bait your hook!