Matthew McConaughey's Quotes

To bring a healthy child into this world, raise them right and watch them grow is the biggest miracle there is.

Vanity is great motivation, to be fair.

Water's never clumsy.

We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.

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.

We spend so much time sublimatin', thinkin' about, 'What am I going to have for lunch, dinner?'

What the heck is true love? I remember feeling, back when I was 12 and 'going' with this girl, 'Is this true love?'

When I see grace in a woman, that's very sexy. You can tell by how someone moves or their rhythm.

Without exercise, I don't feel like my head works right.

You want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a filmmaker? Start shooting stuff on your phone right now.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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'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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?'

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.

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 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.

Life is a series of commas, not periods.

A creep is someone who claims he's one thing but he's actually another.

Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.

Africa is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

Cameras aren't guns. They can't really hurt you.

Good ideas are free - or at least they should be.

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.

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.

I don't know how to work a room. It's a real skill.

I don't want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

I go on The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast is one of the websites that I check out.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

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.

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.

I say to the paparazzi, 'Fellas, take your shot and go.' It's just they usually find me on a beach.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

I was raised on, 'You go get a nine-to-five job, earn your pay and work your way up.'

I'm a football fan, a sports fan, a fan of competition.

I'm not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It's really not my place.

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've done films where we don't rehearse, and I've done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.