Marilyn Monroe quotes

155 Marilyn Monroe quotes

A career is born in public, talent in privacy.

A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night.

A dollar for your thoughts…

A photographer once told me that my two best points are between my waist and my neck.

A sex-symbol becomes a thing; I just hate being a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something I'd rather have it sex than some other things we've got symbols of.

A wise girl kisses, but doesn't love, leaves before she is left and forgets before she is forgotten.

A woman can't be alone. She needs a man. A man and a woman support and strengthen each other. She just can't do it by herself.

Acting isn't something you do. Instead of doing it, it occurs. If you're going to start with logic, you might as well give up. You can have conscious preparation, but you have unconscious results.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everyone jumped on his violin?

An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine, a money machine.

Arthur Miller wouldn't have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.

As of today, I have absolutely no regrets. I think I am a mature person who can take things in stride. I'm grateful for people in my past. They helped me get to where I am, wherever that is. But now, I am thinking for myself and sitting in on all the business transactions.

Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.

Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.

Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I'm just a girl who wishes for the world.

Blond hair and breasts, that's how I got started, I couldn't act. All I had was blond hair and body men liked. The reason I got ahead is that I was lucky and met the right men.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Dogs have never hurt me. Only men have.

Dogs never bite me, just humans.

Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting than being one.

Even though I was born there, I still can't think of one good thing to say about it. If I close my eyes, and picture LA, all I see is one big varicose vein.

Ever since I became a movie star I've been really weird.

Every morning I walk across my apartment rolling an empty soda bottle between my ankles, in order to preserve my balance.

Everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don' think they realize it, but it's like 'grrr do this, grr do that ...' But you do want to stay intact and on two feet.

Everybody says I can't act. They said the same thing about Elizabeth Taylor. And they were wrong. She was great in A Place in the Sun. I'll never get the right part, anything I really want. My looks are against me. They're too specific.

Everyone's a star and deserves the right to twinkle.

Everyone's just laughing at me. I hate it. Big breasts, big ass, big deal, Can't I be anything else? Gee, how long can you be sexy?

Fame is fickle and I know it. It has its compensations, but it also has its drawbacks and I've experienced them both.

Fame will go by and, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experience, but that's not where I live.

First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

Gee, I never thought I had an effect on people until I was in Korea.

Goethe said, 'Talent is developed in privacy', you know? And it's really true. There is a need for aloneness which I don't think most people realize for an actor. It's almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you'll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you're acting.

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you 1000 dollars for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the 50 cents.

Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.

I always felt I was nobody and the only way for me to be somebody was to be... well, somebody else.

I always felt insecure and in the way, but most of all I felt scared. I guess I wanted love more than anything else in the world.

I always sleep with my mouth open. I know because it's open when I wake up.

I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am pretty, but not beautiful. I have friends, but I am not the peacemaker. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.

I am invariably late for appointments - sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.

I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

I am not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go. Things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

I didn't pay much attention to the whistles and whoops, in fact, I didn't quite hear them. I was full of a strange feeling, as if I were two people. One of them was Norma Jean from the orphanage who belonged to nobody; the other was someone whose name I didn't know. But I knew where she belonged; she belonged to the ocean and the sky and the whole world.

I don' know who invented High heels, but all women owe him a lot.

I don't consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.

I don't forgive people because I'm weak; I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes.

I don't know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood important people can't stand to be invited someplace that isn't full of other important people. They don't mind a few un famous people being present because they make good listeners. But if a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened - as if somebody was trying to demote them.

I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.

I don't mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. But what goes with it can be a burden. We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift.

I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.

I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one.

I don't understand why people aren't a little more generous with each other.

I don't want to play sex roles any more. I'm tired of being known as the girl with the shape.

I feel as though it's all happening to someone right next to me. I'm close, I can feel it, I can hear it, but it isn't really me.

I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.

I have never been very good at being a member of any group - more than a group of two, that is.

I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.

I kept driving past the theatre with my name on the marquee. Was I excited? I wished they were using 'Norma Jean' so that all the kids at the home and schools who never noticed me could see it.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I never had belonged to anything or anyone else.

I learned to walk as a baby and I haven't had a lesson since.

I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.

I love to do the things the censors won't pass.

I never intentionally mean to hurt anyone, but you can't be too nice to people you work with; else they will trample you to death.

I never wear stockings or underclothes because I think it are important to breathe freely.

I restore myself when I'm alone.

I seldom write letters, but I love calling friends, especially late at night, when I can't sleep.

I think cheesecake helps call attention to you. Then you can follow through and prove yourself

I think if other girls know how bad I was when I started they'll be encouraged. I finally made up my mind I wanted to be an actress ~and I was not going to let my lack of confidence ruin my chances.

I used to get the feeling and sometimes I still get it, that I was fooling somebody-I don't know who or what-maybe myself. I have feelings some days when there are scenes with a lot of responsibility, and I'll wish, gee, if only I would have been a cleaning woman.

I used to say to myself 'What the devil have you got to be proud about, Marilyn Monroe?' And I'd answer, 'Everything, everything,' and I'd walk slowly and turn my head slowly as if I were a queen.

I used to think as I looked at the Hollywood night, 'there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.

I wanna guy I can look up to . . . I just gotta feel that whoever I marry has some real regard for me, aside from all that loving stuff.

I want to continue my growth in every way.

I want to grow old without facelifts ... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I've made.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know you.

I was never used to being happy, so that wasn't something I ever took for granted. You see, I was brought up differently from the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.

I won't be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me.

If I had observed all the rules, I'd never have gotten anywhere.

If I play a stupid girl and ask a stupid question I've got to follow it through. What am I supposed to do - look intelligent?

If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.

If I'm a star, then the people made me a star.

If you can make a girl laugh - you can make her do anything.

and that I've made of myself, as a sex symbol. Men expect so much, and I can't live up to it.

I'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic.

I'm going to be a great movie star some day.

I'm not interested in money; I just want to be wonderful.

I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best’

I'm trying to find myself as a person, sometimes that's not easy to do. Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do. The best way for me to find myself as a person is to prove to myself that I am an actress.

I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.

Imperfection is beauty. Madness is genius and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous then absolutly boring.

In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are. Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty.

Isn't there any other part of the matzo you can eat?

It isn't necessary to use your voice in any special way (to sound sexy). If you think something sexy the voice just naturally goes along.

It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, you know, of any kind of nature - and it won't hurt your feelings - like it's happening to your clothing.

It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.

It's better for the whole world to know you, even as a sex star, than never to be known at all.

It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far.

It's nice to be included in people's fantasies, but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.

It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

It's often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone.

It's woman's spirit and mood a man has to stimulate in order to make sex interesting. The real lover is the man who can thrill you by touching your head or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.

I've always felt those articles somehow reveal more about the writers than they do about me.

I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time.

I've fallen in love with Brooklyn. I'm going to buy a little house in Brooklyn and live there. I'll go to the coast only when I have to make a picture.

I've given pure sex appeal very little thought. If I had to think about it, I'm sure it would frighten me.

I've never been in a Hollywood fight or feud. I have the most wonderful memory for forgetting things.

I've never dropped anyone I believed in.

I've often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people

Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them.

Men who think that a woman's past love affairs lessen her love for them are usually stupid and weak. A woman can bring a new love to each man she loves, providing there are not too many.

My arrival in school, with painted lips and darkened brows, started everybody buzzing. Why I was a siren, I hadn't the faintest idea. I didn't want to be kissed, and I didn't dream of being seduced by a duke or a movie star. The truth was that with all my lipstick and mascara and precocious curves, I was as unresponsive as a fossil. But I seemed to affect people quite otherwise.

My first contract with 20th Century-Fox was like my first vaccination. It didn't take.

My illusions didn't have anything to do with being a fine actress, I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!

My marriage brought me neither happiness nor pain. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to say. (on her marriage to Jim Dougherty)

My travels have always been of the same kind. No matter where I've gone or why I've gone there it ends up that I never see anything. Becoming a movie star is living on a merry-go-round. When you travel you take the merry-go-round with you. You don't see natives or new scenery. You see chiefly the same press agents, the same sort of interviewers, and the same picture layouts of yourself.

My work is the only ground I've ever had to stand on. I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation but I'm working on the foundation.

Nights are not just for sleep.

No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they're pretty, even if they aren't.

One of the things I like best about men is they're a little vulnerable.

Only the public can make a star. It's the studios who try to make a system out of it.

People ask me if I am going on making cheesecake pictures now that I'm a star. My answer is that as long as there is a boy in Korea who wants a pinup of me, I'll go on posing for them.

People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.

People respect you because they feel you've survived hard times and endured, and although you've become famous, you haven't become phony.

Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.

She [Sadie Thompson] was a girl who knew how to be gay even when she was sad. And that's important--you know?

Some of those bastards in Hollywood wanted me to drop Arthur. Said it would ruin my career.

Some people have been unkind. If I say I want to grow as an actress, they look at my figure. If I say I want to develop, to learn my craft, they laugh. Somehow they don't expect me to be serious about my work.

Someone said to me, 'If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what you would do?' My answer was then and still is, 'If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong'.

Sometimes I've been to a party where no one spoke to me for a whole evening. The men, frightened by their wives or sweeties...the ladies would gang up in a corner and discuss my dangerous character.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know you.

That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather have it sex than some other things we've got symbols of.

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

The most unsatisfactory men are those who pride themselves on their virility and regard sex as if it were some form of athletics at which you can win cups. It is a woman's spirit and mood a man has to stimulate in order to make sex interesting. The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes or by just staring into space.

The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.

The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children. I used to feel for every child I had, I would adopt another

The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They obviously loved somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them - and fooling them.

There was my name up in lights. I said, 'God, somebody's made a mistake.' But there it was, in lights. And I sat there and said, 'Remember, you're not a star.' Yet there it was up in lights.

There's only one sort of natural blonde on earth - albinos.

They way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic.

They've said I want to direct pictures. I couldn't direct traffic.

To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I'm working on the foundation.

Unfortunately, I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can't I just be an ordinary woman? A woman who can have a family ... I'd settle for just one baby. My own baby.

What I really want to say is that what the world needs is a feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, blacks, Jews, Arabs - we're all brothers!

When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I'm already better than them anyways.

When you're a failure in Hollywood, that's like starving to death outside a banquet hall, with smells of filet mignon driving you crazy.

Why haven't I the right to grow and expand like everybody else?

With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else's ideas about you, but what's important is how you feel about yourself--for survival and living day to day with what comes up.

Wouldn't it be nice to be like men, just getting notches in your belt, having affairs with the most attractive men . . . and not getting emotionally involved?

You can't sleep your way into being a star, though. It takes much, much more. But it helps. A lot of actresses get their first chance that way.

You know who I always depend on? Not strangers, not friends. The telephone! That's my best friend. I seldom write letters, but I love calling friends, especially late at night, when I can't sleep.

You sit alone. It's night outside. Automobiles roll down Sunset Boulevard like an endless string of beetles. Their rubber tires make a purring high-class noise. You're hungry, and you say, 'It's not good for my waistline to eat.' There's nothing finer than a washboard belly.

You would think all other women kept their bodies in vaults.