Greenlights
Expressive
Light hearted
Honest

Greenlights

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 “Unflinchingly honest and remarkably candid, Matthew McConaughey’s book invites us to grapple with the lessons of his life as he did—and to see that the point was never to win, but to understand.”—Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck 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 realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too. Good luck.
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Photo of Liam Richardson
Liam Richardson@liamactuallyreads
4 stars
May 10, 2024
Goofy
Sweet
Clever
Honest
Beautiful
Hilarious
Feel good
Meaningful
Intelligent
Light hearted
Testosterone-y
Photo of Teresa Bonifácio
Teresa Bonifácio@teresabonifacio
4 stars
Apr 2, 2024
Photo of Marcy Pursell
Marcy Pursell @mpursell21
5 stars
Feb 12, 2024
Photo of Kendall McClain
Kendall McClain@kendallmcclain
3 stars
Jan 29, 2024
Photo of Victoria
Victoria @murphyvm
5 stars
Jan 9, 2024
Photo of Safiyah Young
Safiyah Young@safiyahleane
5 stars
Dec 20, 2023
Vivid
Honest
Magnetic
Addictive
Expressive
Surprising
Awe-inspiring
Photo of Laura Walden
Laura Walden@lauracwalden
2 stars
Dec 5, 2023
Photo of Melissa Palmer
Melissa Palmer@melissapalmer404
4 stars
Nov 5, 2023
Photo of Jazz
Jazz@jbud24
4 stars
Oct 25, 2023
Delightful
Photo of Dustin Tinch
Dustin Tinch@pinkpistachio
5 stars
Jul 8, 2023
Photo of Ritik Sahni
Ritik Sahni@ritiksahni
5 stars
Apr 23, 2023
Artistic
Remarkable
Expressive
Photo of Emma
Emma@emmao
5 stars
Apr 18, 2023
Photo of Lynn
Lynn@lynncornelissen
4 stars
Mar 15, 2023
Photo of Fortune Atuakpoho
Fortune Atuakpoho@oldmateforty
5 stars
Feb 19, 2023
Photo of Catherine Duplessis
Catherine Duplessis@catherineduplessis
4 stars
Feb 6, 2023
Photo of Sloan MacDonald
Sloan MacDonald@itsmesloaner
4 stars
Feb 6, 2023
Photo of Keven Wang
Keven Wang@kevenwang
5 stars
Feb 4, 2023
Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence
5 stars
Jan 29, 2023
Photo of Kristen Claiborn
Kristen Claiborn@kristenc
5 stars
Jan 7, 2023
Photo of R L
R L@ruthie313
5 stars
Jan 1, 2023
Photo of Christa Bell
Christa Bell@christalouwho
3 stars
Dec 30, 2022
Pure
Simple
Expressive
Photo of Scott Wilson
Scott Wilson@createpei
5 stars
Dec 28, 2022
Photo of Dave | Storyphoria
Dave | Storyphoria@storyphoria
4 stars
Dec 15, 2022
Photo of Megan Snodgrass
Megan Snodgrass@snodingham
3 stars
Dec 12, 2022