Film-maker David Lynch says is not retiring after he said that is now too ill to direct films in person and could only work on projects remotely.

In an interview with Sight and Sound magazine, Lynch said: “I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long, and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not. I can’t go out. And I can only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen.”

He added: “Because of Covid, it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold. So I would probably be directing from my home … I wouldn’t like that so much. I like to be amongst the thing and get ideas there. But I would try to do [a film] remotely, if it comes to it.”

After his comments provoked a strong response from fans, the 78-year-old issued a follow-up statement on X to clarify he would not stop working.

“I have now quit smoking for over two years,” he wrote. “Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire. I want you all to know that I really appreciate your concern. Love, David.”

Lynch’s most recent full-length production was the 18-episode TV series Twin Peaks: The Return, which premiered on Showtime in 2017, and his last feature film was Inland Empire, released in 2006. Lynch’s unrealised projects include a feature film script Antelope Don’t Run No More, apparently completed in 2010, and a rumoured 13-part Netflix series called Wisteria/Unrecorded Night, supposedly in development in 2020.

In the Sight and Sound interview, Lynch said he had a complicated relationship with the cause of his health problems. “Smoking was something that I absolutely loved, but in the end, it bit me. It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it, and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things; nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it’s killing me. So I had to quit.”