Greenlights

· Sold by Crown
4.6
353 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of readers through the Academy Award®–winning actor’s unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN


“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.

Ratings and reviews

4.6
353 reviews
Wendy M
May 11, 2023
I am not generally a biography type reader. However, Mathew did such a fantastic job of pulling me into his thoughts and life experiences I couldn't stop reading. I absolutely loved reading this book, and I feel that I learned quite a bit from it. Thank you!
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alsha Vanattia
April 25, 2023
interesting that's one thing I've can say that I noticed about Matthew is he has a gift that was given him in life that draws people in and makes them relate to him even if it's a little different/perspective this book is encouraging especially when you feel dehumanized it brings you back to where you need to be and encourages you to move forward in your life to where you want to go even if it's something as simple as waking up in the morning and going to work or starting that business that you're afraid that you might fail or might not be able to afford thank you for just being and acknowledging your public stature and encouraging people that you don't know
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Adrian M
December 18, 2021
His voice is always has a way of captivating you. Add to the heartfelt stories he told and you are left with a really great book. From his childhood to the present he lets you in on his thoughts, interactions and internal growth. I've kept the phrase Greenlight/Red Light in my head since this book. It has helped me see that not every rejection is a Red light, but an opportunity for a Greenlight. Get the audio book if you can, having him read his own words does wonders for the book. Thank you for letting me hear what you had to say.
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About the author

Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey is a married man, a father of three children, and a loyal son and brother. He considers himself a storyteller by occupation, believes it’s okay to have a beer on the way to the temple, feels better with a day’s sweat on him, and is an aspiring orchestral conductor.
 
In 2009, Matthew and his wife, Camila, founded the just keep livin Foundation, which helps at-risk high school students make healthier mind, body, and spirit choices. In 2019, McConaughey became a professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as Minister of Culture/M.O.C. for the University of Texas and the City of Austin. McConaughey is also brand ambassador for Lincoln Motor Company, an owner of the Major League Soccer club Austin FC, and co-creator of his favorite bourbon on the planet, Wild Turkey Longbranch.

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