Marilyn Monroe Quotations

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model, and one of the most famous Hollywood icons of the twentieth century.

Sourced

It's not true I had nothing on. I had the radio on.
- On reports of her nude photographs for a calendar, as quoted in TIME magazine (1952)

Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?
- As "Lorelei Lee" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they've made of me — and that I've made of myself — as a sex symbol. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman's and I can't live up to it.
- Statement c. 1962, as quoted in Marilyn (1992) by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham, Ch. 27

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.
- Telegram, turning down a party invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy (13 June 1962)

I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated. ... Goethe said, "Talent is developed in privacy," you know? And it's really true. ... Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever.
- "Marilyn Monroe Pours Her Heart Out" interview by Richard Meryman, in LIFE (3 August 1962)

Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president, and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a nice guy. ... I'll see, I'll see.
- Last words to Peter Lawson (5 August 1962), as quoted at Spiegel Online

Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, 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 experienced, but that's not where I live.
- Her last taped interview, with Richard Meryman, published in LIFE magazine a few days before her death. (3 August 1962); quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972)

Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.
- Last words to actor Peter Lawford, in August 1962, as quoted in US News & World Report (7 October 1985)

An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.
- As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 38

Why? — It paid the rent.
- On why she had posed nude for a calendar photograph, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 39

I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.
- As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of... I just hate to be a thing.
- Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.
- As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

The studio people want me to do "Good-bye Charlie" for the movies, but I'm not going to do it. I don't like the idea of playing a man in a woman's body — you know? It just doesn't seem feminine.
- On turning down a role, eventually played by Debbie Reynolds, as quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
- As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 42

Dogs never bite me. Just humans.
- As quoted in "A Beautiful Child" in Music for Chameleons (1980) by Truman Capote

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
- Handwritten note responding to a question about posing nude, as quoted in International Herald Tribune (5 October 1984)

Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.
- As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

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.
- As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.
- As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

When you're famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. 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, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothes not you.
- Comment on fame, quoted in Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress (1993) by Carl E. Rollyson, and in Symbolic Leaders: Public Dramas and Public Men (2006) by Orrin Edgar Klapp
- Variant: People feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothing.
- As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.
- As quoted in The Films of Barbra Streisand (2001) by Christopher Nickens and Karen Swenson

When Marilyn Monroe got out of the game, I wrote something like, "Southern California's special horror notwithstanding, if the world offered nothing, nowhere to support or make bearable whatever her private grief was, then it is that world, and not she, that is at fault."
I wrote that in the first few shook-up minutes after hearing the bulletin sandwiched in between Don and Phil Everly and surrounded by all manner of whoops and whistles coming out of an audio signal generator, like you are apt to hear on the provincial radio these days. But I don't think I'd take those words back.
- Thomas Pynchon in a letter to Jules Siegel, published in Cavalier magazine (August 1965)

If Marilyn is in love with my husband it proves she has good taste, for I am in love with him too.
- Simone Signoret, responding to rumors that her husband Yves Montand was romantically involved with Monroe. The New York Journal-American (14 November 1960)

I remember her on the screen, huge as a colossus doll, mincing and whispering and simply hoping her way into total vulnerability.
- Gloria Steinem from “Marilyn Monroe: The Woman who Died Too Soon” in Ms. magazine (August 1972); later published in Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983)

I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.
- As quoted in Her Inspiration : Secrets to Help You Work Smart, Be Successful, and Have Fun (2008) by Mina Parker