Hi, David! You're here to talk about Evolution, a touring exhibition of props from your films (1). Do you purposefully try to make the objects in your films iconic?

No. You work from the inside out. If something is projected on them afterwards, it's kind of gravy.

What's it like to see your ideas become reality? The iPod seems like a very Cronenbergian concept …

A lot of the science fiction writers of my youth – such as Arthur C Clarke – were very proud of predicting the future(2). But that was never really part of the excitement for me. I never thought of myself as a prophet.

Everybody has antennae. Some people mute them. If you're an artist, you enhance them. If your antennae are sensitive enough, you pick up some things that are an anticipation of the future whether you want to or not. In Videodrome (3) I couldn't say I was predicting the internet, but the idea of interactive electronic communication was obvious to me. It just seemed like an inevitability, so I didn't even think it was a big deal to invent it."

What are your antennae picking up now? I was thinking of the news that they've grown micro-brains (4)…

Cerebral organoids. Yeah! Every week there's something fantastic. The purest research is the stuff that seems abstract and useless, and then ends up being the thing that really does transform society. Each one of our discoveries is also actually a revelation about how cells work. A human being is really just a module that's controlled by your genes. As far as your genes are concerned, you're just a transmitter. This is the darkness: the selfish gene approach to what a human being is.

The exhibition (5) presents a vision of "David Cronenberg". Do you worry that the image that lives on after your death might not be who you are now?

It won't be. You can see what happens to other artists when they die. It's uncontrollable. There was a time when Shakespeare was considered extremely unimportant. His reputation has gone through many cycles, none of which affected him. All that affected him was what his reputation was when he was alive. It wouldn't disturb me to think that my work would just sink beneath the waves without trace and that would be it. So what? It doesn't bother me.

Are you afraid of dying?

Yes and no. Sometimes a suicide is just saying: "Oh, I've had enough." I also think of it as a fantastic exit, you know? It's an escape. But it's very, very hard to imagine your non-existence, yet we've all experienced it in a sense because before we were born we didn't exist. It depends on the time of day, whether I'm afraid or whether I embrace it.

Do you ever think about how and when it might happen?

Oh, often. I'm 70 years old. That shocks me. I know more dead people than I know living. Everyday you read about someone exactly your age who's croaked it, and in many different ways – sometimes interesting, sometimes not so interesting. I remember doing an interview and saying whenever I kill somebody in my films I'm really rehearsing my own death. Saying: "Well, OK, what would it be like to die this way?" I think that's still true.

What comfort can you take as an atheist knowing you are going to die?

It's an acceptance of the way of the universe. Everybody will die. Every module will die. I had a science teacher who used to say: "I change, but I cannot die." He was talking about the transformation of energy from one form to another. Anytime I've tried to imagine squeezing myself into the box of any particular religion, I find it claustrophobic and oppressive. I think atheism is an acceptance of what is real.

The idea that who you are can mutate after you're dead is interesting …

Yes. You have a public persona. It's out of your control. I remember when Marty Scorsese confessed to me that he was totally intrigued by my early films, but terrified to meet me. And I said: "You're the guy who made Taxi Driver and you're afraid to meet me?" I thought if Marty could have that happen to him then it's understandable that anybody else could. People confuse you with your work in a very direct way. You make scary, horror films, so you must be a scary, horrible person.

Footnotes

(1) Such as the beetle typewriter from Naked Lunch, the game consoles from eXistenZ and the surgical tools from Dead Ringers.

(2) Clarke predicted communication satellites and online banking.

(3) Cronenberg's 1983 film about James Wood becoming addicted to streaming video nasties.

(4) The director swapped organic chemistry for film-making at Toronto university.

(5) The Cronenberg Project is at the Toronto international film festival's Bell Lightbox from 1 Nov 2013-19 Jan 2014, then touring worldwide, venues as yet unannounced

Correction

The original headline was changed because it was felt that it could promote suicide.