Quotes by Marilyn Monroe
Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by Marilyn Monroe. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer. Famous for playing comedic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s and was emblematic of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for only a decade, but her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2019) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, she continues to be a major icon of pop culture. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Monroe sixth on its list of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage and married at age 16. She was working in a factory during World War II when she met a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career, which led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After a series of minor film roles, she signed a new contract with Fox in late 1950. Over the next two years, she became a popular actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in the dramas Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock. She faced a scandal when it was revealed that she had posed for nude photos before she became a star, but the story did not damage her career and instead resulted in increased interest in her films.
By 1953, Monroe was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars; she had leading roles in the film noir Niagara, which focused on her sex appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a "dumb blonde". The same year, her nude images were used as the centerfold and on the cover of the first issue of Playboy. She played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image throughout her career, but she was disappointed when she was typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in The Seven Year Itch (1955), one of the biggest box office successes of her career.
When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe's contract, she founded her own film production company in 1954. She dedicated 1955 to building the company and began studying method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Later that year, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave her more control and a larger salary. Her subsequent roles included a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop (1956) and her first independent production in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her work in Some Like It Hot (1959), a critical and commercial success. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961).
Monroe's troubled private life received much attention. She struggled with addiction and mood disorders. Her marriages to retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio and to playwright Arthur Miller were highly publicized, and both ended in divorce. On August 4, 1962, she died at age 36 from an overdose of barbiturates at her home in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled a probable suicide, although several conspiracy theories have been proposed in the decades following her death.
I need one of those long hugs where you kinda forget whatever else is happening around you for minute.
Imperfection is beauty. Madness is genius. It is better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
To all the girls that think you're fat because you're not a size zero, you're the beautiful one, its society who's ugly.
Creativity starts with humanity when were being human we feel -- joys, sadness, when we're sick, when we're nervous.
People respect you because they feel you've survived hard times and endured, and although you've become famous, you haven't become phony.
I've given pure sex appeal very little thought. If I had to think about it I'm sure it would frighten me.
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.
A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
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.
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.
I have always felt comfortable in blue jeans. I have found it interesting, however, that people also whistle at blue jeans. I have to admit that I like mine to fit. There's nothing I hate worse than baggy blue jeans.
Next to my husband and along with Marlon Brando, Yves Montand is the most attractive man I've ever met.
I could have loved you once And said it But then you went away And when you came back Love was a forgotten word, Remember?
You can't sleep your way into being a star. It takes much, much more. But it helps a lot of actresses get their first chance that way.
My marriage didn't make me sad, but it didn't make me happy either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to say. I was dying of boredom.
I want to be an artist, not an erotic freak. I don't want to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrodisiac.
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.
Love and work are the only two real things in our lives. They belong together, otherwise it is off. Work is in itself a form of love.
If you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell shouldn't schedule a meeting with me before 10am.
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.
I think every human being knows how to hate. Because if they didn't know how to hate how to hate they wouldn't know how to love.
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.
Let yourself go, the pleasure of physical movement is so important. If that's a problem, you say to yourself, what is there that I am afraid of, or hiding? Maybe your libido!
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.
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.
Too often they don't realize what they have until it's gone. ...they're too stubborn to say, 'Sorry, I was wrong' they hurt the ones closest to their hearts, and we let the most foolish things tear us apart.
As far as I can make out, women's friendships with each other are based on a gush of lies and pretty speeches that mean nothing. You'd think they were all wolves trying to seduce each other the way they flatter and flirt when they're together.
I don't forgive people because I'm weak, I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes.
An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument..
I had to use my wits or else I'd have been sunk -- and nothings going to sink me. Everyone was always pulling at me, tugging at me, as if they wanted a piece of me. It was always, 'do this, do that,' and not just on the job but off, too. God, I've tried to stay intact, whole.
Just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything -- they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them.
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.
I have never cared especially for outdoor sports and have no desire to excel at tennis, swimming, or golf. I'll leave those things to the men.
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.
I would have told her then she was the only thing that I could love in this dying world but the simple word love itself already died and went away.
Squeezing yourself to ooze out the last ounce of sex allure is terribly hard. I'd like to do roles like Julie in Bury the Dead, Gretchen in Faust and Teresa in Cradle Song.
Always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, Sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
That's the way you feel when you're beaten inside. You don't feel angry at those who've beaten you. You just feel ashamed.
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.
When you don't have any money, the problem is food. When you have money, it's sex. When you have both, it's health.
Looking back, I guess I used to play-act all the time. For one thing, it meant I could live in a more interesting world than the one around me.
Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.
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.
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.
The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.
When you're young and healthy you can plan on Monday to commit suicide, and by Wednesday you're laughing again.
This life is what you make it. Not matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth.
I used to think as I looked out on 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.
Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Just because you fall once, doesn't mean you're fall at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always trust yourself, because if you don't then who will?
I don't mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. 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.
We are all born sexual creatures,thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift.
The ones that stay with you through everything -- they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world.
I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.
First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
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.
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?
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.
My work is the only ground I've ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I'm working on the foundation.
I love a natural look in pictures.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
I love a natural look in pictures. I like people with a feeling one way or another -- it shows an inner life. I like to see that there's something going on inside them.
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.
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.
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.
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!'
I guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone's wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.
Designers want me to dress like Spring, in billowing things. I don't feel like Spring. I feel like a warm red Autumn.
Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations but it also has its drawbacks, and I've experienced them both.
I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.
I've often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.
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.
Of course, it does depend on the people, but sometimes I'm invited places to kind of brighten up a dinner table like a musician who'll play the piano after dinner, and I know you're not really invited for yourself. You're just an ornament.
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.
Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition for friendship.
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.
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.
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.
Respect is one of life's greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don't have that?
The fact is that I find more most men are more open, more generous, and much more stimulating than the majority of females I know.
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.
What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers.
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.
The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn't any.
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