Matthew McConaughey Says He’s “Peddling Belief” as a Writer and—Maybe—a Politician

It reminds me of this quote I heard from the director Mark Waters. We were having an argument about a scene, and I didn’t want to do this one thing that he wanted to do. He finally goes, “Okay, that’s fine.” He goes, “You know what, McConaughey? You’re seldom wrong, but there’s more than one way to be right.” I’m like, “Oh, touché. You got me.”

I don’t think she’s read that one yet. I think she’ll get a kick out of that one. She’ll go, “Oh, I remember. I bet you I know when you wrote this.”

She hasn’t read the full book yet?

Well, I don’t know if she has. She may tell me afterwards she has. She’s been pretty mum about it. She’s read some and likes quite a few, but she hasn’t brought that one up. I think it’s a side of me that she’d be glad I’m sharing. Poems and prayers are almost the opposite of certainty. I can be very academic and pragmatic and practical. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but that can be exhausting. Not only for ourselves, but others. It’s like, “Hey, come on, man. Take the rough edges off a little bit. We’re jiving here.”

What was making you feel cynical?

The world, the news, the amount of sirens I’m hearing going by. The amount of times I was seeing people, adults, mothers, fathers, thinking it was fine to just be completely irresponsible and almost bad examples for their kids, and thinking that was just fine and be like, “They’ll be fine.”

Irresponsible in what way?

“Hey, win at all costs, no rules to this game called life, just win, lie, cheat, steal and if they’re trying to score on it, move the goalpost while the ball’s in the air, it’s fine.”

Hey, what? Hang on a minute. “If you get yours, however you can git it, takin’ the shortcut, you win in life.” No. I’m not ready to purchase that for myself, for us, or as a thing to be teaching our children.

You have a section in the book called “Man Up,” and several of the poems address questions of what it means to be a good man. There are a lot of conversations, from all directions, about a so-called crisis of masculinity in America. What do you think of that?

I think there’s a crisis of masculinity. I think there’s a crisis of femininity. I think there’s a crisis of humanity. I know I’ve talked to many young men that don’t have a bearing, don’t have a compass, don’t have a North Star that they’re looking toward with how to act, treat others and themselves, how to treat friendships, how to treat relationships, expectations on themselves—going through things very sloppily.

They’re going, “What’s the reward if I do it well? What’s the reward for being a character-filled man?” Let’s talk about that. There is reward for that. And on the sexual topic, a really wonderful thing—it’s really, really good for women to have more good men.