Marilyn Monroe Quotes

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

I restore myself when I'm alone.

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

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.

The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes - or just by staring into space.

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.

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

There is just no comparison between having a dinner date with a man and staying home playing canasta with the girls.

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

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

I'm one of the world's most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

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

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.

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.

I defy gravity.

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

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.

What good am I? I can't have kids. I can't cook. I've been divorced three times. Who would want me?

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

I read poetry to save time.

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.

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.

I enjoy acting when you really hit it right.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them.

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.

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

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

Designers want me to dress like Spring, in billowing things. I don't feel like Spring. I feel like a warm red Autumn.

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

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.

Only the public can make a star. It's the studios who try to make a system out of it.

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 body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.

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

Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.

If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I don't want everybody to see exactly where I live, what my sofa or my fireplace looks like.

I think that sexuality is only attractive when it's natural and spontaneous.

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

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.

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.

I like to feel blonde all over.

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.

A man makes you feel important - makes you glad you are a woman.

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

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.

I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I'm 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.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Fame will go by and, 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 experience, but that's not where I live.

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

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.

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

Friends accept you the way you are.

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

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.

If your man is a sports enthusiast, you may have to resign yourself to his spouting off in a monotone on a prize fight, football game or pennant race.

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Girdles and wire stays should have never been invented. No man wants to hug a padded bird cage.

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.

Dogs never bite me - just humans.

I'm looking forward to becoming a marvelous - excuse the word marvelous - character actress. like Marie Dressler, like Will Rogers.

A smart girl leaves before she is left.

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.'

I love a natural look in pictures.

I just got to feel that whoever I marry has some real regard for me.

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

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

When I was five I think, that's when I started wanting to be an actress.

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.

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.

Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.

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.

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.

It's nice to be included in people's fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.

A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.

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

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.

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

I've never dropped anyone I believed in.

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

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

If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it's that I've never been a kept woman.

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

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

I wish I knew why I am so anguished.

I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.

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

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

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

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

Why is it you always meet people when you look your worst?

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

I don't digest things with my mind.

I think I have always had a little humor.

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

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

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.

I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time.

I often wake up in the night, and I like to have something to think about.

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

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.

It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

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.

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.

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.'

I've always wanted a baby.

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

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.

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!'

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.

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.