Quotes by Matthew McConaughey

A foolish man... built his house upon the sand.

I think it's because we're looking for the meaning. Where is the meaning? We have mindless jobs, we take frantic vacations, deficit finance trips to the mall to buy more things that we think are going to fill these holes in our lives. Is it any wonder that we've lost our sense of direction?

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

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.

So to any of us, whatever those things are: whatever it is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to, and whoever it is we're chasin'. To that I say: Amen. To that I say: Alright, alright, alright. To that I say: Just keep livin'. Thank you.

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.

Cynicism can be funny. But it's the easy way. You'll forget to enjoy anything. I try to make the evolving choice, the forward-moving, life-giving choice. Just keep living, man.

By their fruits ye shall know them.

A genius could be anybody that he wants, but ingenious is always one person at that time.

No matter who is in our bed each night we sleep with ourselves.

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.

Offers dried up after a few years and it was like I had fallen off the radar.

Be brave. Take the hill. But first answer the question, What is my hill?

Life is our resume. It is our story to tell, and the choices we make write the chapters. Can we live in a way where we look forward to looking back?

I am vain. I think vanity is a good thing. It's done more good things for me than it has not.

The Dazed fans are the best! Dazed fans never even want an autograph or nothin'.

I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that.

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.

The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

Me? I haven't made all A's in the art of living. But I give a damn. And I'll take an experienced C over an ignorant A any day.

As an actor for hire, my job is to do some pre-production work for myself. Then my job is to show up and give the best performance I can.

They eat, they crap, they sleep, and if they're crying they need to do one of the three and they're having trouble doing it. Real simple.

Romantic comedies are built to be light. They're built for a certain buoyancy.

Give thanks. Appreciate what you DO have ... the more we give thanks, the more we receive to be thankful for. Gratitude is the gift that always gives back.

I don't mind assholes. It's the dork I don't trust. The dork is the one who's trying to be whatever he thinks you want him to be. I trust the asshole cause you know where he's gonna stand.

I keep a diary -- one for each film and foreign land I travel to.

I love it. It's silly to say that it is a world of false and stupid people. Sure there are witches and swindlers, but you can meet there many creative, talented and generous persons too. Hollywood is a pleasant place, when you are hip to the game and you enjoy it for what it is really.

I got interested in the justice system. If I was, I'd probably be a defense lawyer. I was headed that way, but luckily changed my track to film school.

My experience in work, even going to work with Scorsese, is that people always think there's some magic trick. There's no magic trick. The people who are really good at what they do do simple things really, really well.

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

I like to customize things. I customized the back of old Lincoln to be my mobile office. I had one of those little laptop desks like in a police car, and I had a cooler in there, so that was my mobile office.

Try not to make a straight line crooked.

It's one of the things I love about making films: the places I've got to travel that I would never have gone to before.

Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Don't play an attitude; don't play a guy who's negative. Play a guy who's not trying to sell anybody on anything, he's just saying how it is and if you want to come by what he's thinking, you're welcome. If you do not, then do not.

Having children has helped me become a better actor because they remind you to play make believe. It's the ease and naturalness of their beings. They just play and it's completely real for them at the time. As an actor, if we do it well, we make you believe.

My father -- who I know is up there right now, with a big pot of gumbo, he's got a lemon meringue pie, he's probably in his underwear, and he's got a cold can of Miller Lite -- and he's dancing.

Life is not a popularity contest. Take the hill, but first answer the question: What is my hill?.

It's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates.

My favorite dish is cleaning out the fridge on Sunday night and improvising a great medley.

I'm a fan of the word selfish. Self. Ish. When I say I have gotten a lot more self-ish, I mean I am less concerned with what people think of me. I'm not worried about how I'm perceived. Selfish has always gotten a bad rap. You should do for you.

That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.

Traveling is a great love of mine. I love South America and Africa. I'm your ultimate backpacker when I'm away. It's just me and my backpack. It's good for getting away from the industry.

Hypocrites do the devil's drudgery in Christ's livery.

God's lucky.
The goddess of luck is fortune.
Fortune is the sister of fate.
Fate is the divine order.
And the divine order is God.
So as far as I can tell if you believe in luck you believe in God.

Yes, it is the Big Easy, home of the shortest hangover on the planet, where libation can greet you on Monday morning with the same smile as it did on Saturday night.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Never is a man more of a man than when he is the father of a newborn.

To lose the power of confrontation is to lose the power of unity.

She's a cool ghost. Maybe me being nude all the time is why we get along.

No computer, no gadget, no trickery. I am an animal, it is a plant. I will beat the weed!

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 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 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'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 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.

My whole family are hams. They're storytellers and everyone outdoes the next one.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Music is a really great creative tool for me, for different roles.

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.'

There's a difference in thinking you are a champion and knowing that you are.

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

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

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.

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

We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.

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.

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.

My life is the road, man. I need to keep moving.

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

There aren't many things that are universally cool, and it's cool not to litter. I'd never do it.

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

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.

If you can be mentally stimulated by the workout and find out how to get through it, it's more fun.

Life is a series of commas, not periods.