Marilyn Monroe Quotes

99 Sourced Quotes

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 were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them and fooling them.

Marilyn Monroe
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.

Marilyn Monroe
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.

Marilyn Monroe
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.

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

Marilyn Monroe
The public doesn't mind people living together without being married, providing they don't overdo it.

Marilyn Monroe
Try to enjoy myself when I can - I'll be miserable enough as it is.

Marilyn Monroe
Goethe said, 'Talent is developed in privacy,' you know?... 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.

Marilyn Monroe
I don't care how rich he is – as long as he has a yacht, his own private railroad car, and his own toothpaste.

Marilyn Monroe
Yes, there was something special about me, and I knew what it was. I was the kind of girl they found dead in a hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand.

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

Marilyn Monroe
Everyone's childhood plays itself out. No wonder no one knows the other or can completely understand. By this I don't know if I'm just giving up with this conclusion or resigning myself - or maybe for the first time connecting with reality. How do we know the pain or another's earlier years, let alone all that he drags with him since along the way at best a lot of leeway is needed for the other - yet how much is unhealthy for one to bear. I think to love bravely is the best and accept - as much as one can bear.

Marilyn Monroe
We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift. Art, real art, comes from it.

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

Marilyn Monroe
I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.

Marilyn Monroe
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.

Marilyn Monroe
I wanted to ask a thousand questions, but there was no one to ask. Besides I knew that people only told lies to children-lies about everything from soup to Santa Claus.

Marilyn Monroe
I know I will never be happy but I know I can be gay!

Marilyn Monroe
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
But chiefly, no lies! No lies about there being a Santa Claus or about the world being full of noble and honorable people all eager to help each other and do good to each other. I'll tell her there are honor and goodness in the world, the same as there are diamonds and radium.

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

Marilyn Monroe
Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.

Marilyn Monroe
I don't care about the money. I just want to be wonderful.
Sometimes quoted as: I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.

Marilyn Monroe
The worst thing that happens to people when they dress up and go to a party is that they leave their real selves at home.

Marilyn Monroe
In Hollywood, a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo.

Marilyn Monroe
I lay in bed at night crying to myself. The only one who loved me and watched over me was someone I couldn't see or hear or touch.

Marilyn Monroe
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.

Marilyn Monroe
A struggle with shyness is in every actor more than anyone can imagine.

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

Marilyn Monroe
Fame to me certainly is only a temporary and a partial happiness... fame is not really for a daily diet, that's not what fulfills you. It warms you a bit but the warming is temporary. It's like caviar, you know — it's good to have caviar but not when you have to have it every meal and every day.

Marilyn Monroe