Matthew McConaughey is a tried-and-true Texan, an Oscar-winning actor, UT Austin\u2019s minister of culture, a guy who somehow makes most commercials far less annoying, a dad, a husband and many other things \u2014 including a best-selling author.<\/p>\n
His first book, the extremely personal memoir Greenlights, published in 2020 and included journal pages and poetry sprinkled throughout. His new book, Poems & Prayers<\/a>, is available now and is much more of the \u201cjust keep livin\u2019\u201d philosophy McConaughey has trademarked.<\/p>\n McConaughey is bringing his book tour for Poems & Prayers to Austin on Sunday. Find out more about the event at Bass Concert Hall<\/a>.<\/p>\n Listen to an extended interview with McConaughy in the audio player above or read the transcript below.<\/p>\n This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.<\/p>\n Texas Standard: How soon after Greenlights did you realize you weren\u2019t done sharing your writing?<\/p>\n Matthew McConaughey: I knew I wanted to continue writing after I wrote Greenlights because that experience of writing it was so special to me. I kind of fell in love with it.<\/p>\n For so many decades, I didn\u2019t have the confidence to write like that, and I remember I had this big treasure chest full of journals, and I was like, \u201cI think there might be something worth sharing in there.\u201d<\/p>\n So I asked [my wife] Camila, I said, \u201cHey Camila, when I die, you mind going through this and seeing if there\u2019s something worth sharing?\u201d And she gave me the middle finger. She said, \u201cNo, you do it. Don\u2019t put that on me.\u201d And hence, I loaded them up. She kicked me out and said, \u201cGo away and see what you got.\u201d And that turned out to be Greenlights.<\/p>\n And that process was so rewarding for me, personally. And then to have shared it and so many readers to have read it and it connected to them, very rewarding. So I knew I wanted to continue writing. What it was gonna be \u2014 I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n A few years later, I found myself in a world now where I\u2019m looking around at facts and evidence and going like, \u201cOh man, I\u2019m not seeing so many reasons to believe.\u201d And so, I said, “Well, look, you\u2019re writing poems, writing prayers. Those are ideals. Those are pursuits that are not necessarily in reality, but you can get reality from them.”<\/p>\n So I said, \u201cWell, let\u2019s lean into that.\u201d And I looked down and found a bunch of poems and prayers from my past and wrote a bunch of new ones. And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve got in this book. And hopefully it\u2019s worth sharing.<\/p>\n Poems & Prayers sounds like a beautiful diversion from the muck of the world. And I think that you\u2019re encouraging all of us to find that to some extent. But this project was also born of frustration, right?<\/p>\n Mm-hmm. I found myself a couple years ago, Lord, getting a little cynical. And I swore to myself a long time ago, I said, you know, I think that\u2019s one of the worst chosen diseases that we can have, cynicism. You know, we\u2019re born, we are innocent, then we\u2019re naive, then we grow and we mature and we become skeptical. We need to stop there, because the next thing is cynicism.<\/p>\n And I see it being a disease of getting older that some people have. And yeah, it\u2019s very clever; it can get the laugh at the party. It can be snark, and it can be full of doubt and sometimes accurate.<\/p>\n But \u2014 it means you quit believing, and I\u2019m not ready to quit believing. I called myself out on it, and I said, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not ready to,\u201d and I have enough people around me that I know aren\u2019t ready to stop believing, either.<\/p>\n I understand that we look around in the world and there\u2019s not a long, long list that\u2019s obvious of things to believe in and people to believe in. And being a man who said, \u201cI\u2019m not ready to give in to the doubt\u201d \u2014 because if the doubt wins, we all lose \u2014 I want to sell some belief. It\u2019s in short supply. I need it. And I talked to a whole lot of other people that need it.<\/p>\n And I\u2019m not only talking about belief in God; personally, I am, for me, but for a lot of people, my agnostic friends, I am talking about belief in self, belief in others, belief in tomorrow, belief in their children, whatever that may be. Belief is in short supply, and I think we need it to survive.<\/p>\n It feels like I see from you that you feel a responsibility to be a citizen, right? I mean there\u2019s been talk of you entering politics yourself. You were present after the Uvalde shooting with the victims of your former hometown.<\/p>\n You\u2019re not running for office, but you\u2019re just saying, \u201cHey people, I feel this \u2014 can we do something about it?\u201d Is that fair?<\/p>\n Yeah, I think it is to some extent. I don\u2019t know how much it\u2019s me feeling responsible. There is some of that, and I understand my position in life, but I also don\u2019t really move out of responsibility\u2019s sake. I\u2019m moving out of what moves me, and then it\u2019s something that I want to do that I feel is important that is, hopefully, aligned with \u2026 something that\u2019s a good thing to do.<\/p>\n So I\u2019ve been in movies. I wrote for the last six years. I\u2019ve got my first movie, The Lost Bus, coming out. \u2026 I think it\u2019s been eight years. I didn\u2019t know that. I thought it\u2019d been like a year or two. Someone told me it\u2019s been eight.<\/p>\n I mean, to write books, to share Greenlights, to write Poems & Prayers, to investigate other avenues of leadership, whether that be in politics or somewhere else. It\u2019s just something I called on myself to go \u2014 look, when I write, when I do movies, I\u2019m performing a character written by someone else, directed by someone, lensed in a camera by someone else and edited by someone else.<\/p>\n And I was like, \u201cWell, let\u2019s get rid of the filters.\u201d What if you go write and direct and lens and edit your own thing? Which is where the writing came from.<\/p>\n And I\u2019ve also sort of existentially trying to challenge myself going like, \u201cOK, you go play characters in movies. Well, who are you in the documentary of your life, McConaughey?\u201d You know what I mean? What\u2019s going on in this big show that we\u2019re all in where action was called the day we were born and cut will be called the date we leave here? You know, what are you doing? So that\u2019s been a challenge I\u2019ve been throwing on myself.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been quite a conscientious challenge, and I have to watch that it doesn\u2019t become overly self-serious or I\u2019m absolutely no fun to be around. But I\u2019ve tried to, you know, I think the poems and prayers were the natural next one because they do rhyme. It is musical. They do feel like a Saturday on a Monday.<\/p>\n They still can be aspirational. They still can be responsible. They can be silly, and they have humor, but they\u2019re still in that column of, I think, something good to share that I think we could all use, and I know I could.<\/p>\n You talked about getting the confidence to write and to share your writing. And, to me, you take that to the nth degree. You\u2019re not just writing about your life. You\u2019re writing about some things that I think others would find embarrassing or even shameful.<\/p>\n You share your poems from when you\u2019re 18. I mean, there\u2019s one here called \u201cDeuces,\u201d right? That just made me laugh. But I guess I want to know, like, how and why you got this way \u2014 like you said, no filter?<\/p>\n So look, when I went away with those journals that time after my wife kicked me out and said, \u201cGo see what you got,\u201d trust me, the first 10 days of reading through them, a lot of shame, a lot guilt, a lot of, \u201cOh my God, I can\u2019t believe you were such a, you know, this guy or that guy or you were such an arrogant little prick, McConaughey,\u201d whatever it was.<\/p>\n But after 10 days of being stuck with that and reading and seeing over and over, oh, I stepped in, you know what? Ah, over and over I malaprop the situation. I was overconfident. Over and over, I noticed that after those times, I got humbled. Something happened in my life that humbled me.<\/p>\n And what I started to notice, I was like, well, then you can\u2019t disregard the times where you were not who you wished you would be or the times you were arrogant or even rude or mean, because those are the things that allowed you to get humbled later on and learn something.<\/p>\n So the guilt and the shame started to turn into giggles. I started laughing at myself going, \u201cBoy, this is just a rinse, rinse, wash, repeat.\u201d You keep doing this, but everyone does that. Right?<\/p>\n There\u2019s a cycle and a rhythm to that with everyone\u2019s life. We take aim, we think we have something, and it doesn\u2019t go as planned. Well, we look back and we go, \u201cOh my gosh, I can\u2019t believe you were so self-assured,\u201d or whatever that was. And that becomes a rhythm. And I think that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n So I wanted to add those things. And because that\u2019s the rhythms of life, not only for me, I hear that from all kinds of people and to share those rhythms and say, \u201cHey, that\u2019s all part of the song.\u201d As T Bone Burnett says, \u201cEven when you\u2019re lost and wobbly and looking, if you just stick at it, you\u2019ll find a song.\u201d<\/p>\n That reminds me of a thing from Greenlights. You have this reputation, I think, as a dreamer, even a slacker. It\u2019s that \u201cWooderson\u201d character, maybe the bongos. But there was a story in Greenlights that I tell other people and I\u2019m like, \u201cWait a minute, that Matthew McConaughey is a hard worker.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the treehouse story. I\u2019ve tried to build a treehouse a couple of times in my youth. I got like two little rungs in the tree, and I was like, \u201cThis is hard, I\u2019m done.\u201d I\u2019m good at other things.<\/p>\n But you really threw yourself into this treehouse, just as an example. Do you think that you\u2019re misunderstood? It\u2019s kind of the way you\u2019ve described it, too \u2014 it\u2019s like you work hard to dream or something like that? You would put it better.<\/p>\n Yeah, I work hard to dream. I prepare so I can play.<\/p>\n I believe I\u2019m quite intentional, and the people who know me best tell me I\u2019m quite intentional and deliberate. To use a sports metaphor, I pretty much go through the playbook to a great extent. So, when I show up on the field, I can call audibles or have the freedom to call audibles because I feel like I\u2019m prepared and know the plays. That\u2019s what I try to get to.<\/p>\n So I think part of that comes off \u2014 what I\u2019m saying is, am I relaxed? Sometimes, I like it when I am. \u2026 It\u2019s why I like to leave on time, so I can take my time to get where I\u2019m going. You know what I mean? I\u2019d rather just have a day where my stuff\u2019s planned out and I can saunter through it at my own pace and rhythm because I know where I am supposed to be and where I wanna be and kind of what the day anticipates.<\/p>\n Now, that doesn\u2019t always go as planned, obviously. And, you know, like all of us, I\u2019m trying to get better with calling the audibles when something doesn\u2019t go as planned. But I don\u2019t want to make the easy stuff hard \u2014 and the hard stuff\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n And I don\u2019t like the feeling of not being prepared for a role or for my marriage or for fatherhood. \u2026 I don\u2019t like that feeling. So as much as I have to deal with the new things that I didn\u2019t plan on coming, I have a baseline of trying to be prepared for most things.<\/p>\n Is there a poem you\u2019d share with us?<\/p>\n How about, you wanna hear \u201cTips Included\u201d?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n So this is based on \u2014 I was always like, kind of never understood the participation trophies. All right? And I feel like we overcompensated a little bit. And that idea parlays into also the times where I think we, myself, others, rely on fate so much that we take our hands off the wheel.<\/p>\n And so the idea behind this poem is that, yeah, if you believe in fate, great. And if you\u2019re a believer in God \u2014 I don\u2019t think God or us wants us to have our hands off the wheel. That self-reliance and faith are not contradictory. So, keep your hands on the wheel.<\/p>\n Matthew McConaughey reads his poem “Tips Included”<\/p>\n You\u2019re going on tour with Poems & Prayers.<\/a>\u00a0And this isn\u2019t any old book tour. You\u2019re sharing big stages with musicians, including at the Bass Concert Hall here in Austin. What should folks expect from that?<\/p>\n Yeah, so the idea was, \u201cHey, you want to go to bookstores and sign books, McConaughey?\u201d I said, yeah, but I want to do something more fun with that. And then I said, \u201cWell, what if I just show up in parks and start reading poems and see who shows up?\u201d And I said that\u2019s a good idea, but let\u2019s even go further.<\/p>\n And so then we said, “Look, let\u2019s get dates and theaters and do some poem readings.” And locked that down and then I was like, \u201cSo many of these poems are musical \u2014 what if I invited some friends of mine, they\u2019re musicians, to come on stage?\u201d<\/p>\n And so, what you\u2019ll see in Austin and Bass is I\u2019ll come on stage and sort of set the table with an opening sort of 15-18 minute sort of platform of why we\u2019re here, and then I\u2019ll invite a musician out. And each of these musicians \u2014 the one in Austin\u2019s gonna be Jon Batiste<\/a> \u2014 coming out to join me, they\u2019re gonna play scores.<\/p>\n We\u2019re going to have conversations about some of what these poems are about: faith, doubt, belief and forgiveness, grace, these things. And then they\u2019ll play music and score under my readings of poems. And we\u2019ll do a sort of a playlist, a 12-poem playlist, and we\u2019ll end the night. And that\u2019ll hopefully be at least a story to tell and a good time spent.<\/p>\n If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it\u00a0here<\/a>. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on\u00a0texasstandard.org<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0KUT.org<\/a>. Thanks for donating today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey is a tried-and-true Texan, an Oscar-winning actor, UT Austin\u2019s minister of culture, a guy who somehow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-30213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}