Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson) was an American actress, model, and singer. Famous for playing comic “blonde bombshell” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and was emblematic of the era’s attitudes towards sexuality. Although she was a top-billed actress for only a decade, her films grossed $200 million by the time of her unexpected death in 1962. By 1953, Monroe was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars. Monroe 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). She continues to be a major popular culture icon to date.
Some of the best quotes from Marilyn Monroe are listed below.
- “A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up to it on a cold night.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “A girl doesn’t need anyone that doesn’t need her.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “All we demanded was our right to twinkle.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Always remember to smile and look up at what you got in life.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Anything’s possible, almost.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn’t catch their eye they won’t bother to read what’s inside.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Dogs never bite me. Just humans.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Ever notice how ‘What the hell’ is always the right answer?” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don’t 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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations but it also has its drawbacks, and I’ve experienced them both.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, Fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “First, I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “For life: it is rather a determination not to be overwhelmed. For work: the truth can only be recalled, never invented.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “For those who are poor in happiness, each time is a first time; happiness never becomes a habit.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that’s not easy.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t forgive people because I’m weak, I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot!” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t mind living in a man’s world, as long as I can be a woman in it.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t stop when I’m tired. I only stop when I’m done.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t understand why people aren’t a little more generous with each other.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I don’t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I live to succeed, not to please you or anyone else.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I love to do the things the censors won’t pass.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I never wanted to be Marilyn — it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I read poetry to save time.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I restore myself when I’m alone.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I think that sexuality is only attractive when it’s natural and spontaneous.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – 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’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I’m trying to find the nailhead, not just strike the blow.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “I’ve been on a calendar, but never on time.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – 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
- “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?” – Marilyn Monroe
- “If I’d observed all the rules I’d never have got anywhere.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “In spite of everything life is not without hope.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “It’s all make believe, isn’t it?” – Marilyn Monroe
- “It’s far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Its not too much fun to know yourself too well or think you do — everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through and past the falls.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Maybe I’ll never be able to do what I hope to, but at least I have hope.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Men are climbing to the moon, but they don’t seem interested in the beating human heart.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Most men judge your importance in their lives by how much you can hurt them.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – 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
- “One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I’m a woman. That is the way all females should feel.” – 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
- “Please quote me right!” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that?” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important—you know.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “The ‘public’ scares me, but people I trust.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “They will only care when you’re gone.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “This is a free and democratic country and no one has a monopoly on anything.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “This is supposed to be an art form, not just a manufacturing establishment. The sensitivity that helps me to act, you see, also makes me react. An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “This life is what you make it. No matter what, you’re going to mess up sometimes, it’s a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you’re going to mess it up.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “Who said nights were for sleep?” – Marilyn Monroe
- “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.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “You might as well make yourself fly as to make yourself love.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “You never know what life is like, until you have lived it.” – Marilyn Monroe
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