Marilyn Monroe quotes

I want the world to see my body.

• world

There isn't anybody that looks like me without clothes on.

• me

A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.

• best

When it comes to gossip, I have to readily admit men are as guilty as women.

• women

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.

• girl

When Clark Gable died, I cried for 2 days straight. I couldn't eat or sleep.

• sleep

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.

• life

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.

• god

Confidentially, the type of male I find most enjoyable for a friend is one who has enough fire and assurance to speak up for his convictions.

• friend

I'll think I have a few wonderful friends and all of a sudden, ooh, here it comes. They do a lot of things. They talk about you to the press, to their friends, tell stories, and you know, it's disappointing.

• think

It's all make believe, isn't it?

• believe

Next to my husband, and along with Marlon Brando, I think that Yves Montand is the most attractive man I've ever met.

• man

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.

• alone

It is wonderful to have someone praise you, to be desired.

• you

The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has a cleavage; they ought to worry if she hasn

• censorship

When I was 11, the whole world was closed to me. I just felt I was on the outside of the world.

• me

I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!

• be happy

I don't look at myself as a commodity, but I'm sure a lot of people have.

• myself

We should all start to live before we get too old.

• live

We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.

• stars

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

• talent

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

• alone

Sometimes, wearing a scarf and a polo coat and no makeup and with a certain attitude of walking, I go shopping or just look at people living. But then, you know, there will be a few teenagers who are kind of sharp, and they'll say, 'Hey, just a minute. You know who I think that is?' And they'll start tailing me. And I don't mind.

• attitude

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

• myself

The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn't any.

• girl

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

• girl

I love a natural look in pictures.

• love

Nothing's ever easy as long as you go on living.

• you

I am alone; I am always alone no matter what.

• alone

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

• me

I defy gravity.

• gravity

I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen.

• women

Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men. Marilyn Monroe’s father destroyed her love life

• relationship

Fame may go by and - so long, I've had you.

• you

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.

• alone

I always have a full-length mirror next to the camera when I'm doing publicity stills. That way, I know how I look.

• mirror

My dinners at home are startlingly simple. Every night, I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops or some liver, which I broil in the electric oven in my room. I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat, and that is all. I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots.

• simple

When I was five, I think, that's when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn't like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.

• me

I won't be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn't mean I want them to stop looking.

• me

Friends accept you the way you are.

• you

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

• being

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.

• acceptance

Respect is one of life's greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don't have that?

• life

The truth is, I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves.

• truth

I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.

• i am

I restore myself when I'm alone.

• alone

I have evolved my own exercises, for the muscles I wish to keep firm, and I know they are right for me because I can feel them putting the proper muscles into play as I exercise.

• me

One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I'm a woman. That is the way all females should feel.

• best

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 unfamous people being present because they make good listeners.

• good

I've always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, 'Hi,' that the people ought to get their money's worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me.

• best

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

• know

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

• myself

Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.

• girl

Consider the fellow. He never spends his time telling you about his previous night's date. You get the idea he has eyes only for you and wouldn't think of looking at another woman.

• eyes

Someday I want to have children and give them all the love I never had.

• love

Beauty and femininity are ageless and can't be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won't like this, cannot be manufactured. Not real glamour; it's based on femininity.

• beauty

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

• live

Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered... to feel she is the most important thing in someone's world. Only a man can paint this picture.

• man

You know, most people really don't know me.

• me

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

• woman

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.

• foundation

I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

• marilyn

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

• bed

There is a need for aloneness, which I don't think most people realise 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. But everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like sort of a chunk of you.

• moment

We human beings are strange creatures and still reserve the right to think for ourselves.

• think

How do I know about a man's needs for a sex symbol? I'm a girl.

• girl

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.

• sick

I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president's birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing 'Happy Birthday,' like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!'

• birthday

For a long time I was scared I'd find out I was like my mother.

• mother

I've found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

• men

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

• good

The 'public' scares me, but people I trust.

• trust

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

• foundation

I've never dropped anyone I believed in.

• never

I like to feel blonde all over.

• feel

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

• people

When I was a youngster I lived with different families. I nearly always felt closer to the man of the house. Maybe because I always dreamed of having a father of my own.

• father

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

• nature

There are many times when a woman will ask another girl friend how she likes her new hat. She will reply, 'Fine,' but slap her hand to her forehead the minute the girl leaves to yipe, 'What a horror!'

• friend

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

• alone

A woman can bring a new love to each man she loves, providing there are not too many.

• love

I want to be an artist, not... a celluloid aphrodisiac.

• artist

I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don't know who or what, maybe myself.

• myself

Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, 'One tear, right now,' that one tear would pop out.

• me

What's the good of drawing in the next breath if all you do is let it out and draw in another?

• good

My public is growing up just as I am. After all, I'm not 19 anymore and if I stick with the sex bit, who will be paying to see me when I'm 50?

• i am

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.

• god

At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.

• girl

Black men don't like to be called 'boys,' but women accept being called 'girls.'

• women

I have been told my eating habits are absolutely bizarre. But I don't think so.

• think

I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.

• be happy

A man has a tendency to accept you the way you are, while most women immediately start to pick flaws and want to change you.

• women

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

• marilyn

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.

• success

Fame is like caviar, you know - it's good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.

• good

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

• women

A strong man doesn't have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn't match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

• love

Having a child, that's always been my biggest fear. I want a child and I fear a child.

• fear

The working men, I'll go by and they'll whistle. At first they whistle because they think, 'Oh, it's a girl. She's got blond hair and she's not out of shape,' and then they say, 'Gosh, it's Marilyn Monroe!'

• girl

Depending upon my activities, I sleep between five and ten hours every night. I sleep in an extra-wide single bed, and I use only one heavy down comforter over me, summer or winter. I have never been able to wear pajamas or creepy nightgowns; they disturb my sleep.

• winter

I remember when I was in high school I didn't have a new dress for each special occasion. The girls would bring the fact to my attention, not always too delicately. The boys, however, never bothered with the subject. They were my friends, not because of the size of my wardrobe but because they liked me.

• dress

If I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein.

• eyes

Fame doesn't fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.

• you

Men who think that a woman's past love affairs lessen her love for them are usually stupid and weak.

• love

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

• good

Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn't miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.

• alone

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

• night

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

• mind

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll be a great actress.

• myself

I read poetry to save time.

• time

A man is more frank and sincere with his emotions than a woman. We girls, I'm afraid, have a tendency to hide our feelings.

• man

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

• myself

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I'd worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: 'Don't hide these things from me. I'd rather you ask me these things straight out, and I'll answer all your questions.'

• me

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.

• great

In fact, my popularity seems almost entirely a masculine phenomenon.

• popularity

Girls shouldn't worry about being the equal of men in the business world.

• business

Hollywood is 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.

• hollywood

I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that's not easy.

• myself

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, would give me a wide berth. And the ladies would gang up in a corner to discuss my dangerous character.

• character

It's not to much fun to know yourself too well or think you do - everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.

• yourself