David Lynch – the groundbreaking director of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, who gained a cult following for his unsettling portraits of American life – has died.

"He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are."

One of Hollywood's most imaginative and indecipherable filmmakers, if not one of its most prolific ones, has walked the blue-velvet carpet into the great beyond. Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive director David Lynch has died at the age of 78.