Name: Greenlights
Rating: 4.181528662420382 (314 reviews)
ISBN: 9780593139134

Matthew McConaughey

"Drawing on the Academy Award-winning actor's journals and diaries from the last 40 years, this book presents a uniquely McConaughey approach to achieving success and satisfaction"--

Greenlights

Greg Talbot

"If all that I would want to do, would be to sit and talk to you... would you listen?" - Ann Ashford The Mcconaissance does a victory lap in this life-affirming, cowboy existentialism, bullshitting, good-humored, profound, and ridiculous life story from the king of cool himself. The book is breezy and unburdened, and the extraverted energy in the raw notes, and colorful inserts is a testatment that life is best lived ourwardly. Spend a little time reading, reviewing a few notes, but the real class is outsid the corners of a book or screen. This isn't a biography of McConaughey's life, so much as it is a poetic journey around a campfire. The stories of his family, making a career, finding success, finding himself, and finding family are relatable to us all. The impressions of his father, a larger-than-life wound-up and big-hearted fella carries over this book heavily. As does the spiritual quest of trying to find a value beyond Hollywood's emptiness. Confidence runs deep. And even though McConaughey doesn't revel in the misses in his life, he meets his failures head on. And finally there's that generous spirit. Carrying about himself, but bringing others with him. Having his wet dreams, fancy cars, brilliant good looks...but never straying far from Uvalde, Texas. Like a lot of fans of McConaughey, I really loved his work in "True Detective", and some really great movies with "Dallas Buyers Club", "Lincoln Lawyer", and "Mud". But what really drew me to this book is just the storyteller himself. If he weren't such a great actor, he would hopefully find myself as a motivational speaker - see (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0p1fjLPjYQ" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0p1f...</a>). The search is always on brother, and as he says here, the book is looking backward so he can look forward. Finally, enjoyed the grace notes this book ends on. We all hopefully on the tail-end of a society on lock-down or at least finding a new normal from this awful pandemic. And we are coming to turns with the racial disparities that have always held our country back from living out our aspirational founding document. So find that greenlight. Move forward. Be braver than you think you are. And keep on living.

Scott Wilson

A life lived with gravitas and pursuing that which called out to our author, Mr. Matthew McConaughey! I’m deeply impressed by his honour system and sense of right and wrong. Matthew took the road less travelled and he was all the better for it, and we are the better for his preparation and note taking over his exciting life. We join him on his journeys to Australia, South America, and Africa. We take a tour through America and Canada in his Air Stream travel trailer. Finally, we are routing for his successful transition from Romantic Comedy actor to roles that resonate more with him. Looking forward to hearing more about his journey as a father and grandfather as well as his continued travels in the future!!

Yulez

great storyteller and life enthusiast. it’s funny and feels like a thrift store of quotes and stories where everyone can find a trinket to take away.

An upcoming book to be published by Penguin Random House.

Your Journal, Your Journey

Man this guy might be my favourite actor ever - and that’s beyond the Interstellar bias LOL

abhi 

this was a fast read and funny. i enjoyed the use of mix media and also liked that it wasnt like just behind the scenes of his times on movie sets, but focused more on himself as a person and his journey through life. it was also nice to read a memoir from the pov of someone so optimistic. 

however, matthew mcconaughey is kinda weird, so some parts of the book i was like um. and the story how he met his wife i was like GIRL RUN. but clearly it didnt bother her bec they are married LOL.

alice l

this was a fast read and funny. i enjoyed the use of mix media and also liked that it wasnt like just behind the scenes of his times on movie sets, but focused more on himself as a person and his journey through life. it was also nice to read a memoir from the pov of someone so optimistic. 

however, matthew mcconaughey is kinda weird, so some parts of the book i was like um. and the story how he met his wife i was like GIRL RUN. but clearly it didnt bother her bec they are married LOL.

McConaughey's performance of his own book is phenomenal. His delivery of the writing is exciting, particularly his introduction of every prescribe, bumper sticker and note to self throughout the book. 

The whole audiobook is delivered with such a entertaining rhythm that it is so easy to listen to. 

Matthew McConaughey's take on life, love, work and the every day is unique without leaving the reader (listener) excluded from the experience. 

To paraphrase the author himself, McConaughey reads his own autobiography; greenlight! 

Liam Richardson

McConaughey's performance of his own book is phenomenal. His delivery of the writing is exciting, particularly his introduction of every prescribe, bumper sticker and note to self throughout the book. 

The whole audiobook is delivered with such a entertaining rhythm that it is so easy to listen to. 

Matthew McConaughey's take on life, love, work and the every day is unique without leaving the reader (listener) excluded from the experience. 

To paraphrase the author himself, McConaughey reads his own autobiography; greenlight! 

Teresa Bonifácio

Matthew McConaughey delivers a very good (audio)book! It seems a little all over the place but he keeps a timeline! I loved the way he told his stories and how he seems to be a guy with his head in its place! I always wondered what made him go from a romcom actor to one with an oscar! I got it here! 
It’s a good book to hear in rainy days!

Marcy Pursell 

I've always liked Matthew McConaughey as an actor, mostly from his romantic comedies, so when I saw he'd written a book, I figured I would read it. Or listen to it, as the case may be. As soon as the audiobook starts, you can tell this isn't just going to be a boring, monotonous listen. McConaughey's voice booms, and laughs, and it sounds like he's just telling you a story, which he is. While I like him as an actor, I knew virtually nothing of his background. I cannot tell you how shocked I was to learn that he visited Mali-twice-a place that I had lived. He also references Nebraska a time or two, where I was born and raised. These small unexpected connections gave me warm feels. The book was all about finding the Greenlights in your life, how to figure out where you're going, and you learn his life story. A very fun listen with accents and all, though it would have been nice to see the pictures he references in the book version.

Kendall McClain

I knew nothing about matthew before this book and now I love him so very much! Amazing writing and beautiful stories

Victoria 

I'm not usually one for an autobiography, but it was pleasant to hear him speak about his life and little tid bits of advice on life. He's a very interesting human being thats been through some sh***.

phenomenal storytelling. genuine insight. a true inspiration. 

Safiyah Young

Laura Walden

Melissa Palmer

Not what I was expecting but it was humbling.

Jazz

Dustin Tinch

Greenlights reads like love feels. 

Matthew McConaughey is an intellectual and a master in storytelling. 
He bares his soul in these pages and illuminates the inspiring, beautiful, and heartbreaking aspects of life that make it worth living. 

It is an ode to our humanity. 

The lessons shared here were metamorphic for me and I will carry them with me always.



   Here are a few of my favorite quotes: 


1. “We cannot fully appreciate the light without the shadows.

2.  “Don’t walk into a place like you wanna buy it, walk in like you own it.”

3.“I'm not perfect; no, I step in 💩 all the time and recognize it when I do. I've just learned how to scrape it off my boots and carry on.”

Ritik Sahni

From the Academy Award®-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction. I've been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me. Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life's challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call 'catching greenlights.' So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops. Hopefully, it's medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot's license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears. It's a love letter. To life. It's also a guide to catching more greenlights-and to realising that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too. Good luck.

Emma

What a journey! I loved every second of it :)

Raucous Stories and Outlaw Wisdom from the Academy Award-winning Actor

Lynn

Thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book! I didn’t know much about McConaughey going in, but his memoir taught me everything I needed to know (the good and the bad). Personal, heartfelt, witty, touching, deep at times, it showcases his view on life and how boldness is his bumpersticker. This one was a very different take on a memoir, which has its undertones of privilege, misogyny and bluntness, but as I didn’t read this for life advice, I could enjoy the story of his life without this bothering me too much. If you’re in for a non-fiction that’ll give you a laugh. This is the one for you.

Fortune Atuakpoho

personable, relatable, a look into hope - simply a book everyone should read.

Catherine Duplessis

I knew Matthew McConaughey as the hot guy in romantic comedies who always finds himself shirtless. I wanted to know more about the behind the scenes of one of my favourite movie « How to lose a guy in 10 days ». I didn’t get what I wanted, but I got a book about how to find yourself and stay true to yourself through red, yellow and Greenlights. Through the eyes and the life of a famous actor in Hollywood. (What makes this personal quest more complicated and unique.) Found it a little too philosophical or spiritual which was affecting the rythme of the story at times. But the curious (and voyeuristic) side of me who likes reading about rich and famous people lives enjoyed it!

Sloan MacDonald

*audiobook*
alright alright alright. great road trip book, very entertaining.

Keven Wang

This book needs to be consumed in audiobook form. With the stories and the accents

Essence

this book was very insightful! loved learning how he thinks

Kristen Claiborn

My Take-5 Stars
	I truly appreciate my friends that read. I have had this book on my TBR list since the day it was published, but it wasn’t a high priority, so I kept putting it off. One of my friends decided I definitely needed to read it, so he sent it to me (in the summer of 2021, so it took me a year to read it…sorry friend). Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. 
	Matthew McConaughey is an odd fellow, but it would seem as though many insanely creative people are odd, and really…what does it mean to be odd? Excerpts from the journals he kept provide an insight into his mind, which seems to have been moving at a million miles an hour his whole life. I was surprised to read that he had always wanted to go into film of some sort…I’m not sure why I had this idea that he kinda fell into it by accident. His success truly was no accident. McConaughey did what was required to follow his dreams. 
	I found it quite fascinating how often he left civilization to clear his psyche. I’ve always been a fan of fleeing life for a minute, and here is a man who is undeniably successful who also takes a break from his life every now and then. It made me feel like we should all give it try every now and then. I think that’s what I took away the most from this book, that it’s ok to take of and hit the reset button. Everything about this man’s story is fascinating and worth reading about.

Greenlights

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