“Catching the Big Fish” is David Lynch’s brief novel describing, mostly, the effect meditation has had on his creative impulses. Notably, Lynch has been meditating for over 33 years, and so can be considered a semi-expert on the subject.
In the book, Lynch discusses his former love for painting, his move from Philadelphia to LA, how intuition is essential to the filmmaker, the origin of the “Twin Peaks” Red Room, and how “Lost Highway” was related to the OJ Simpson trial and the fact that “nothing can stay hidden forever.
Still, there are mysteries the filmmaker refuses to discuss, such as what sentence from the bible helped inspire “Eraserhead,” and the meaning of the Blue Box in “Mulholland Drive.”
Here are some quotes from the book. Some may surprise you:
“It (meditating) takes you to an ocean of pure consciousness, pure knowingness. But it’s familiar; it’s you. And right away a sense of happiness emerges- not a goofball happiness, but a thick beauty.”
“Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they’re like poison to the filmmaker or artist.”
(On switching from painting to film mediums): “…I began to wonder if film could be a way to make paintings move.”
I picture it like a round white room that has yellow, red and blue curtains covering the white wall. The curtains are three states of consciousness: waking, sleeping and dreaming. But in the gap between each curtain, you can see the white of the Absolute-the pure bliss consciousness.”
“It’s a joke to think that film is going to mean anything if somebody else fiddles with it…The film may suck, but at least you made it suck on your own.”
