Ask the Author: Matthew McConaughey
Answered Questions (13)
Matthew McConaughey
1)Becoming more of my true self, becoming more me.
2)Cultivating the roots to grow not only wider but deeper when it comes to what kind of father and husband I am.
3)Becoming a more useful leader in society.
2)Cultivating the roots to grow not only wider but deeper when it comes to what kind of father and husband I am.
3)Becoming a more useful leader in society.
Matthew McConaughey
100%. Through this book tour I have crystalized and evolved many ideas I propose in Greenlights that I believe can be a worthy follow up. As well, I have been inspired to go much deeper into alternate approaches to the art of livin and decision making (to catch and create more Greenlights for ourselves and others) that I believe will be worth sharing and deconstructing.
Matthew McConaughey
Real lime juice, white sugar (or agave syrup), Contreau instead of Grand Marnier (too sweet), and a touch of Tonic or Topo Chico to give the drink a little effervescent “lift,” or “treble” as I call it.
Matthew McConaughey
By judging the deed but not the offender. By damning the harmful message I received, but not letting the it define me. By discerning that certain hardships that, after they happened to me, were inevitable, I had the choice to get relative with how I saw them and let them affect who I was. In many of these circumstances, I saw the only constructive way forward was to admit I was a victim, but not be victimized by their doing.
Matthew McConaughey
MUD. It is the story that I most close to the childhood summers I experienced. It’s also the film that I have had dreams of my own father (who moved on from this life on August 17, 1992) coming to my 12-year old self, putting an arm around me and saying, “Hey little buddy, there’s this movie MUD I wanna watch with you, damn it’s a good one.”
Matthew McConaughey
The most challenging part of writing the book was letting what it was (is) reveal itself to me without me forcing an idea of what I thought it was going to be upon it. Secondly, as I wrote to myself on DAY 4 of writing the book, “The words in this book need to be worthy of sharing with the world if signed by ‘Anonymous,’ while at the same time be a book that only Matthew McConaughey could have written.”
Matthew McConaughey
I always have a certain some sort of anticipation anxiety about cruising through greenlights and wondering if the next light is going to be red, and if so, why? I am learning, as I wrote about in The Art of Running Downhill, to appreciate and embrace and dissect the reasons I am catching greenlights when I am, and to not get an non-deserving complex when I am catching a succession of them. If I can avoid complacency when I am on my frequency, and not take the successes for granted, while still maintaining a grace, a hunger for continuing the process, and a courage to accept and feel I’ve earned the greenlights when I’m catching them, then I find I catch more for longer—always understanding that the red lights WILL come on their own without needing me to self-implode to create them on my own.
Matthew McConaughey
Not too difficult. I never intended to write a memoir. The fact that the backbone narrative chronologically told over the last 50 years of my life leant to the memoir genre but never felt retrospective in how I shared them, I believe mainly because the stories from my life were all used as introductions to lessons learned via prescribes, poems, prayers and bumperstickers—all of which I hopefully used as scalable applications to NOT only events in my life, but in similar yet personal events in the readers life. In film terms I approached the story telling narrative as the main storyline, and placed the prescribes, poems, prayers, and bumperstickers as call backs (flashbacks) to inform the reader of HOW I chose to view the preceding story, and as launchpads (flash forwards) to contextualize and propel the reader INTO the following story to come.
Matthew McConaughey
Everything has context. There’s what I say happened, you say happened, and what really happened. It’s the same with the news, social media, friends and acquaintances. We are such a reactionary society and have a tendency to think we are raising ourselves up by putting others down. I do not believe this is true, rather, just a “quick fix” and “short $.” I try not to jump to conclusions too quickly, believe in the best in people, knowing that sometimes we get their best and sometimes we won’t. I’m just not a cynic. I embrace life with a very high trust level, and at the same time keep a keen eye out for the tyrants that may not have my best interests in mind. I work hard… to be chill.
Matthew McConaughey
I have a sincere romance with almost all of the films I have done. “Dazed and Confused” stands out because it was my first, and something that I thought might just be. “one off” hobby in the summer of ’92 that ended up turning into a career I love 28 years later. It’s also where I learned the value of collaboration in acting and storytelling. Next, would be “MUD,” because it’s the film my dad would of wanted to take his 12 year old son to see.
Matthew McConaughey
Both. Many, upon entering them, I knew it was just an experiment, a rental, a stop not a stay in my life. I’d say most of them I entered with the open wonder, and even hope that they maybe would-could be stays. I have always gone into any relationship (with people, career, etc.) with an eye, head, and heart to SEE the best in it, and in seeing the best in it, be open to growing WITH that person or position. Sometimes I know its just a stop going into the situation, sometimes I realize it well down the road, and sometimes I’m still here, staying.
Matthew McConaughey
I’ve met so many characters on the road and love to pick up a good “turn of phrase.” Language, and the colorful ways different people use it really excites me. Here’s a little excerpt I heard in Marfa, Tx.
I wanted to wander the local art galleries in Marfa today so I asked the concierge at the hotel I was staying in if he knew their hours of operation.
He said, “In Marfa sir, there’s no schedules, merely suggestions…trying to nail anyone down to an appointment’s like tryin to nail jello to the wall."
I wanted to wander the local art galleries in Marfa today so I asked the concierge at the hotel I was staying in if he knew their hours of operation.
He said, “In Marfa sir, there’s no schedules, merely suggestions…trying to nail anyone down to an appointment’s like tryin to nail jello to the wall."
Matthew McConaughey
Death of my father and birth of my first son. The loss of my father was an obvious RED light that made me realize I was responsible for myself and needed to become a man, which is why I include his passing as a true greenlight in my life. The birth of Levi, my first child, because that is the day I finally became the only thing I ever truly knew I wanted to be, a father. When I became a parent, everything else in my life, instinctually unconditionally, became at the most, secondly important. In a world full of greys, the black and white clarity of that was and is enlightening for me. It gave me strength, courage, and clarity. And I actually become better at the things in my life that were previously more important to me.
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