Top 187 Quotes & Sayings by Matthew McConaughey - Page 2

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

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.

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'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.

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.

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

Starting at about, I guess, forever, I've always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn't wait to be 16 and get a driver's license.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The male is always the pawn in a romantic comedy. Come together, break up, go chase her, get her, roll credits. That's what happens in all of them.

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

See, 'A Time to Kill' was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

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.

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

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.'

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

My number one thing? Don't overleverage yourself. Don't say you can do something when you really can't.

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

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.

First off I want to thank God, because he's the one I look up to, he's graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human kind. He has shown me that it's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late (British actor) Charlie Laughton, who said, 'When you got God, you got a friend and that friend is you.'

We found a great rhythm. Contractions started kicking in. I sat there with her, right between her legs. We got tribal on it, we danced to it! I was DJ-ing this Brazilian music.

I'm obsessed with trying to understand what somebody is talking about and trying to get them to understand me.

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 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?

Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.

I think 'unbelievable' is an unbelievably stupid word.

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.

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

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.

There are three things, to my account, that I need each day. One of them is something to look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.

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.

I think human consciousness is a misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware, nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law.

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.

You know who it is? It's me in 10 years. So I turned 25. Ten years later, that same person comes to me and says, 'So, are you a hero?' And I was like, 'not even close. No, no, no.' She said, 'Why?' I said, 'Because my hero's me at 35.' So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life, my hero's always 10 years away. I'm never gonna be my hero. I'm not gonna attain that. I know I'm not, and that's just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.

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

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

Some things, you just like what you like and you stick to it. Other things, you like what you like, but the things that come with celebrity or success comes more options. There's was nine, all of the sudden there's ninety-nine things to say "yes" to, which you didn't have the option to say "yes" to yesterday.

It's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates.

If happiness is what you’re after, then you are going to be let down frequently and be unhappy much of your time. Joy, though, is something else. It’s not a choice, not a response to some result, it is a constant. Joy is “the feeling we have from doing what we are fashioned to do,” no matter the outcome.

The older you get, the more rules they’re gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin’ man, l-i-v-i-n’

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

When you've got God, you got a friend. And that friend is you.

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.

A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.

Life is not fair, it never was and it is now and it won't ever be. Do not fall into the trap. The entitlement trap, of feeling like you're a victim. You are not.

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

Every hero doesn't do this great big hero thing. They do the simple thing over and over... and they stick to it.