DIRECTOR DAVID LYNCH 'THERE'S A PRICE TO PAY FOR SMOKING'

THE FILMMAKER IS LIVING WITH COPD AFTER DECADES OF SMOKING WHICH IS WHY HE'S URGING OTHERS TO QUIT

- EILEEN FINAN

Try Googling "David Lynch" and you'll likely come upon photo after photo of the Academy Award-winning director with a cigarette in hand. For most of Lynch's life, that's exactly the image he wanted to portray. "A big, important part of my life was smoking," says Lynch, 78. "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."

But, he admits, "what you sow is what you reap." Four years ago the Mulholland Drive director was diagnosed with emphysema, a chronic lung condition that causes shortness of breath and which is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. Today he relies on supplemental oxygen for anything more strenuous than a walk across the room-and he wants to warn other smokers that the same could happen to them. "In the back of every smoker's mind is the fact that it's not healthy, so you're literally playing with fire," he says. "It can bite you. I took a chance, and I got bit."