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.

I've been in this life for 50 years, been trying to work out its riddle for 42 and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last 35. 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 50 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 realising that the yellows and reds eventually turn green, too.

Good luck.

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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 42 minutes
Author	Matthew McConaughey
Narrator	Matthew McConaughey
Audible.com.au Release Date	20 October 2020
Publisher	Headline
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B08J43CXZ4
Best Sellers Rank	4 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Biographies of Actors & Entertainers 1 in Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals 1 in Individual Directors

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4 star		12%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Melody James

Very short book

Reviewed in Australia on 25 October 2020

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Just as I finished the book in a very disappointingly quick read, I thought I had finally reached the meat of the book, the real story or chapters, only to find......., it had ended! Took about an hour to read? I can't believe I paid nearly $16AU for that! I was really looking forward to a good read of a good Memoir. Seems to me, to be something just to generate income in his life. It was SO hard to read on Kindle. Painful to read on Kindle, painfully short, painful waste of money. I warned my sister in time before she shelled out precious bucks for this book. I'm sorry to be leaving such a negative review, when I was so looking forward to reading this much publicized book by an Actor I enjoy.

5 people found this helpful

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Garry

Great book, Kindle edition needs work

Reviewed in Australia on 31 October 2020

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Great book with so much to take out of it. Amazon please do something about the Kindle Edition, the words are way too small and can not be enlarged? Otherwise, this would get a 5 star.

3 people found this helpful

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Julia Storm

Highly Recommend

Reviewed in Australia on 19 November 2020

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Unique, laugh-out-loud funny and inspiring. This book not only entertains with cool stories told in Matthews lyrical way, but reminds us to honestly examine ourselves and our lives as we go and course correct where necessary. A thoroughly enjoyable memoir.

One person found this helpful

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robert niederer

Whoosh!!

Reviewed in Australia on 13 November 2020

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What a piercing insight into a human who will always be a work in progress. Deliberately. I am 72, but I will wait for the next instalment. In the meantime I will pick up the positivity and try to rebrand myself.

2 people found this helpful

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Tasje

Excellent read!

Reviewed in Australia on 12 November 2020

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A truly intelligent, arty and humorous Bio, well worth reading.
I read it on my iPad so luckily i could make the letters a bit bigger but some pages were hard to read.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Outstanding.

Reviewed in Australia on 23 November 2020

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Escape 2020.. Its been a interesting year for everyone to say the least. Old mate we'll make you realise that things will change very soon..
Green Lights.

One person found this helpful

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Lucy

Loved it

Reviewed in Australia on 31 October 2020

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Great book, entertaining audio. What a life!

One person found this helpful

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This is a book for fans of the actor but also it is a book for anybody who just loves good stories.

Reviewed in Australia on 1 November 2020

Alright, Alright, Alright! Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey....what can I say?

This book was fun, it was entertaining, it was interesting. It made me laugh so much and it broke my heart. Matthew has been one of my favourite actors since A Time To Kill. I loved hearing his behind the scenes stories about making his movies.

But it is so much more than that. Matthew really is a born storyteller. Greenlights covers his life from being a kid right up to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is stories from his diaries that he has been keeping since he was 15. He talks about his exchange student program to Australia, that wasn't quite what he expected but it was a turning point in his life. His experiences, his thoughts and his positive outlook on life, it is all very inspiring.

Some of my favourite stories, apart from his trip to Sydney were the acne story, how he got the role as Jake Brigance in A Time to Kill and the research and story of Dallas Buyers Club. The acne story is worth reading this book alone!

There are some great photos from his life and some get quotes "bumper stickers" as he calls them. I love the way that he looks at things, how to get to those Greenlights, you have to hit some red ones first... everything happens for a reason.

This is a book for fans of the actor but also it is a book for anybody who just loves good stories.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Helen

Long Overdue Window to Sincerity

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 October 2020

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Beautifully written and narrated by Matthew McConaughey, I have both the audiobook and the hardback on release date so listening to the voice I was able to look at the images, scans, photos and handwritten notes contained in the book as well.

This account of a life being lived, enjoyed and embraced whilst not being for sale is filled with sincerity, warmth and humility.

In Matthew’s own words, it’s a love letter to life, and listening all the way to the end, I really felt that is true.

I do not fan celebrities at all, especially Hollywood ones or typical A listers, but this voice was played to me at a time in my life when I needed to hear it so I was excited to get to know the full soul behind that personal experience for me.

There are lots of motivational videos online featuring this man’s voice.

The book is fast pace and a true page turner, I finished it in the one day and feel nothing but warmth and uplifted.

Thankful to have had this experience today. A great read / listen. Five stars from me.

93 people found this helpful

Aran Joseph Canes

Gather Around the Campfire

Reviewed in the United States on 21 October 2020

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Greenlights is a remarkable first book from an already renowned artist. Kind of a mashup of Anthony Bourdain with Ernest Hemingway, McConaughey tells stories with the aplomb of accomplished raconteur. Part memoir, part life guide and part ethic Greenlights is worth reading for many beyond McConaughey’s fan base; basically anyone who likes a good man’s man adventure story.

Born into the lower middle class in East Texas, McConaughey looks back nostalgically at a childhood few would envy. His parents divorced and remarried each other twice, he was subject to corporal punishment and money was always an issue. Yet he doesn’t complain about disadvantage. In fact he honors his parents despite their shortcomings. He adheres to a philosophy of choosing to recalibrate what seems like the inevitable until it turns into a green light or way forward in life.

After a rite of passage involving brawling with a barroom bouncer, McConaughey pursued acting with the drive and hard work ethic that was instilled into him. Finding early success, he choose to live in a way directly opposite to the Hollywood scene. Traveling the country with his dog, going off on expeditions to the middle of Africa and South America, McConaughey sees livin (drop the g to indicate it’s always a verb) as more than just the material success and creature comforts many of us settle on.

Finally, after years of womanizing, McConaughey settled into a successful monogamous relationship and fulfilled his life long ambition of being a father. Nearly simultaneously he chose to walk away from lucrative rom-coms to focus on something more artistic. Initially successful in winning an Oscar for the Dallas Buyers Club, McConaughey admits that he hasn’t achieved the popular success he envisioned. But that is all grist for the mill, experiments in livin that are ongoing.

If this is the kind of man you would like to read about, Greenlights will be an enjoyable and inspirational read. It’s rare that a successful actor has such a distinctive off air personality. But if you’re turned off by physical conflict, wild adventures and a man who brags about rarely showering alone than Greenlights is not for you.

Personally, while not finding all parts of McConaughey’s biography admirable, I found enough of him to be so different than what Hollywood typically churns out that the book was worth reading. Recommended to all who feel they’re similarly traveling in unmapped regions and want to gather around the campfire to hear a fellow wanderer’s tales.

608 people found this helpful

E. Capurro

To thyself be true

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2020

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Could not put it down-always a sure sign of a good read. But it is so much more. McConaughey's reflections on life, of himself, of the world he lives in speak to the heart, make you take pause and do a little internal reflection for yourself.

A refreshing read where it is so clear that he is a man to is true to himself and his loved ones - not willing to sell his soul.

If I have one critique it is that with its unusual presentation - there are pages that are barely readable. They do not detract from the storyline but because of the illegibility - they do not add to it.

27 people found this helpful

mikey2363

Matthew McConaughey (Mc-Con-A-Hey)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 November 2020

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I’ve been a fan of Matthew McConaughey for a few years now - even though I still struggle to say his name correctly.

I knew from previous interviews I had seen that he was one of those more down to Earth actors - not the usual bleeding heart Liberal do as I say not as I do type.

He is certainly a very deep thinking man, he questions everything about life, about people and about his choices in life that have sent him on his own path. A very religious and spiritual man he brings up interesting advice about self determination and how to slow down and take a look around every now and again.

After reading about his upbringing you can see why he’s like he is. A tough but fair childhood prepared him for the drive he would need to become an actor where it’s a dog eat dog world.

I laughed out loud numerous times as he shared his stories of growing up and highlighting the mistakes and decisions we have all made which increased my respect for the man.

Certainly someone id like to have a beer with and set the world straight.

A great read.

13 people found this helpful

KIRSTEEN

Good but not great!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2020

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It would've been good to actually be able to read it properly, the words are so small on kindle edition and you can't change it. Matthew sounds like a great guy but book just didnt do it for me!

12 people found this helpful

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