Matthew McConaughey Quotes
Actor
Man who invented the hamburger was smart; man who invented the cheeseburger was a genius.
The best advice comes from people who don't give advice.
Life is a series of commas, not periods.
There are certain nights you and your image just aren't in the same bed.
There's a difference in thinking you are a champion and knowing that you are.
My rule is to break one sweat a day.
If you want your hair to be thicker, cut it when the moon is about to be full - a heavy, full, waxing moon. Do not cut it when the moon's waning.
Now, you lose something in your life, or you come into a conflict, and there's gonna come a time that you're gonna know: There was a reason for that. And at the end of your life, all the things you thought were periods, they turn out to be commas. There was never a full stop in any of it.
I say to the paparazzi, 'Fellas, take your shot and go.' It's just they usually find me on a beach.
There aren't many things that are universally cool, and it's cool not to litter. I'd never do it.
My life is the road, man. I need to keep moving.
If you can be mentally stimulated by the workout and find out how to get through it, it's more fun.
You want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a filmmaker? Start shooting stuff on your phone right now.
There's a gap between what I want to do, what I do on camera, and what gets edited. Right? So the goal is to try and close the gaps. What's the biggest compliment is if I read a review and it's exactly what I wrote down in my diary before ever filming it. That's really cool. That's the biggest signifier of closing the gaps.
I love having my hands in the dirt. It is never a science and always an art. There are no rules. And if it comes down to me versus that weed I'm trying to pull out of the ground that doesn't want to come out? I know I'll win.
I don't want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.
There's two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.
When someone bestows something on you, no matter how true it is, when someone says, 'Sexiest Man Alive,' I'm honestly going, 'Thank you. Right on.' For me, it's never canceled out anything, it's never made me go, 'Does this make me less talented of an actor?'
I'm not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It's really not my place.
I was raised on, 'You go get a nine-to-five job, earn your pay and work your way up.'
Any artist, the work you do, if it's a painting or if it's a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else's life. That's what's fun about sharing art.
I don't dislike any of my exes. If I took time to form a relationship, it's gonna hurt when we move on, but are you puttin' White-Out over all that beautiful time together? That was real time in your life. It's connected to where you are today.
We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.
I go on The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast is one of the websites that I check out.
I've never been a manipulator, even in my bachelor days. I never wanted to do things to people that could catch up with me later on.
See, 'A Time to Kill' was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.
Whether I'm running on the beach without my shirt or whether I'm going out with my kids or going to church or going out to dinner - I don't choose to insulate myself in engaging in real life. Hence, the public kind of almost knows me as much through my real life that they see through the rag mags.
I like the city. I like the concrete. I like big business. I like being a CEO of my own company and having a lot of responsibilities. At the same time, when I can go off with a backpack or off on a surfboard or even off on a run somewhere in the woods - that's where I'm really happy.
I'm a golfer, and what are the two sports you can do till you drop? Golf and surfing. They're great for you limber-wise, they're great for you health-wise, and they put you in sweet locations.
I'm a football fan, a sports fan, a fan of competition.
When I see grace in a woman, that's very sexy. You can tell by how someone moves or their rhythm.
I've been in a couple of weddings where the coolest people that were the most day before so mellow and then the day of the wedding freaking out.
I like quips. I like whiffs of cynicism and I think they can be witty. But I don't really know where wittiness is constructive.
My whole family are hams. They're storytellers and everyone outdoes the next one.
When I first starting making money, when I first made my first six-digits, I was - my big thing was I went to put super unleaded in my truck for the first time.
Starting at about, I guess, forever, I've always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn't wait to be 16 and get a driver's license.
I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.
My number one thing? Don't overleverage yourself. Don't say you can do something when you really can't.
I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.
Water's never clumsy.
Sure, I can get a little bit jealous. The good part about jealousy is that it comes from passion. It's also the dangerous part and it's an ugly emotion that hurts.
My last name is originally Irish. I'm not exactly sure whereabouts it's from, but I've got family branches that were traced back there.
What the heck is true love? I remember feeling, back when I was 12 and 'going' with this girl, 'Is this true love?'
I've read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, 'Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.' I don't want to be part of that.
I like a good pair of jeans, but I also like putting on a nice tux. I'd rather go around in a good pair of jeans that you don't wash every day, because they get more and more comfortable.
For me, one of the toughest things about Valentine's Day is that it gets geared up as the day to profess your love. See, T-E-S-T - that's a bad word that doesn't go with L-O-V-E.
I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I'm for anything life-affirmative. I'm for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who's different.
It's not a science when you are judging art, but we'd be remiss to say you can't look at something and say, 'This is more well done than that.'
I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.
Music is a really great creative tool for me, for different roles.
In whatever adulation you get, there's truth and there's not truth. And wherever they dog you, and they say it was horrible - there's truth and there's not truth. It's human nature to like to read the adulation more.
The unsaid rule for living in a trailer park is: 'If the door's shut, don't come a-knockin.' But if it's open and you're walkin' by, feel free to say, 'Hello.'
I've done films where we don't rehearse, and I've done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.
We spend so much time sublimatin', thinkin' about, 'What am I going to have for lunch, dinner?'
Even as a kid, I wore J.C. Penney plain-pocket jeans because they were plain pockets. I didn't want anybody's name on my backside. I personally don't like to wear clothing that is named for somebody or has someone's likeness all over it.
I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.
The challenge for me as an actor is if you become a celebrity, you don't meet strangers anymore. And strangers are where we have our anonymity. And I believe it's essential for the soul to be anonymous, especially if you're going to be an actor.
Without exercise, I don't feel like my head works right.
I've got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I've got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.
I don't know how to work a room. It's a real skill.
Vanity is great motivation, to be fair.
I personally don't like to go see romantic comedies. But people do want to see them, and they seem to want to see me in them.
Good ideas are free - or at least they should be.
A creep is someone who claims he's one thing but he's actually another.
Cameras aren't guns. They can't really hurt you.
We have a big appetite for putting people down but, at the heart of everyone, there's enough room for all of us to succeed.
To bring a healthy child into this world, raise them right and watch them grow is the biggest miracle there is.
I've never been a jealous person, and I've never felt built up by someone else's failure - that's a cheap thrill.
I like to be able to wear something that is appropriate for wherever the day takes me: to work, on a hike and then out to dinner. I like to take the formality out of the day's schedule and be ready for any off-road detour.
I think the discipline comes with turning that cellphone and Blackberry off and unplugging completely. You do that and you go through some withdrawals in the beginning. You start thinking, 'Oh, do I need to do this? Do I need to do that?' You forget that we were doing just fine with the payphone.
When you have good friends you've been around, every time they talk, you don't give them your full attention. You don't look them in the eye and stop. Half the time, you're listening, half the time, you are ignoring them.
I've got a great sense of humor, and if I'm able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that's hugely flattering.
I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.
My wife and I don't compete. We know each other's preferences, and we work to provide those for each other. One will take over when the other is faced with something he or she dislikes. That's what friends do.
I love good film, whether it's an independent or studio film. The independent films, I think the good ones aren't necessarily eccentric ones but they're the more specific ones.
I'm one of the most adaptable guys I know in as much as travelling is my favourite thing to do in life. With every place I go, I try to stay there long enough to do it justice, long enough so that I can at least imagine what it would be like to live there. Once I imagine that, then it's OK for me to return home.
A coach, especially at a college level - much more at a college or high school level, than at a pro level - you're more of a teacher than an actual coach.
I don't dabble and spend much mind or time dealing with, I don't know, people's perceptions of me. I truly don't.
When I'm surfing, I'm sure not thinking about the paparazzi. I guess if they start getting on floaties and coming out there in the water, then I might be a little upset.
There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, 'Oh, you're playing yourself.' I guess it's kind of a compliment. Or people say, 'Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.' The work is to make it look effortless. That's the hard part.
Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.
I always wanted to be a father and thought it would be great, but it just took the right woman and the right time to make it all happen.
One of the great pleasures of going to see a Daniel Day-Lewis film: you haven't seen him in five years. Where have you been? So, it's a special event, right? Well, if you want to go see a movie that I'm in, it still may be a special event for you, but, you don't feel like you don't know where I've been.
My lawyer has been a good friend of mine for a long time. He and I continuously have conversations.
Africa is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
Kids will remind you that, even though you've gone down a road 100 times, it's brand new for them - and that's healthy.
I love Los Angeles, and it's been very good to me, but if everyone is running around telling the stories, who's living them? You don't play characters that are celebrities - you play guys who know what to do when their septic tank's blocked.
Romcoms are hard in a lot of ways: they're built to be buoyant. It's easy to demean them.
I know when I grew up, it was, if it was daylight outside, get outside. Well, now, with the technological age of computers and everything, everyone's inside virtually going everywhere they want to go, virtually having relationships, virtually traveling across the neighborhood, virtually going to that island.
I will say this: one of the things that is a pain when you're expecting children is how much advice unsolicited people give you when you're not asking for it.