Best quotes from Marilyn Monroe

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.

1. “A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up to it on a cold night.” – Marilyn Monroe
2. “A girl doesn’t need anyone that doesn’t need her.” – Marilyn Monroe
3. “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
4. “A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.” – Marilyn Monroe
5. “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
6. “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
7. “All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same.” – Marilyn Monroe
8. “All we demanded was our right to twinkle.” – Marilyn Monroe
9. “Always remember to smile and look up at what you got in life.” – Marilyn Monroe
10. “Anything’s possible, almost.” – Marilyn Monroe
11. “Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.” – Marilyn Monroe
12. “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
13. “Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.” – Marilyn Monroe
14. “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
15. “Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer.” – Marilyn Monroe
16. “Dogs never bite me. Just humans.” – Marilyn Monroe
17. “Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.” – Marilyn Monroe
18. “Ever notice how ‘What the hell’ is always the right answer?” – Marilyn Monroe
19. “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
20. “Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.” – Marilyn Monroe
21. “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
22. “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
23. “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
24. “For life: it is rather a determination not to be overwhelmed. For work: the truth can only be recalled, never invented.” – Marilyn Monroe
25. “For those who are poor in happiness, each time is a first time; happiness never becomes a habit.” – Marilyn Monroe
26. “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
27. “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
28. “I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.” – Marilyn Monroe
29. “I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that’s not easy.” – Marilyn Monroe
30. “I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.” – Marilyn Monroe
31. “I don’t forgive people because I’m weak, I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes.” – Marilyn Monroe
32. “I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot!” – Marilyn Monroe
33. “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
34. “I don’t mind living in a man’s world, as long as I can be a woman in it.” – Marilyn Monroe
35. “I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.” – Marilyn Monroe
36. “I don’t stop when I’m tired. I only stop when I’m done.” – Marilyn Monroe
37. “I don’t understand why people aren’t a little more generous with each other.” – Marilyn Monroe
38. “I don’t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
39. “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
40. “I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.” – Marilyn Monroe
41. “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
42. “I live to succeed, not to please you or anyone else.” – Marilyn Monroe
43. “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
44. “I love to do the things the censors won’t pass.” – Marilyn Monroe
45. “I never wanted to be Marilyn — it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.” – Marilyn Monroe
46. “I read poetry to save time.” – Marilyn Monroe
47. “I restore myself when I’m alone.” – Marilyn Monroe
48. “I think that sexuality is only attractive when it’s natural and spontaneous.” – Marilyn Monroe
49. “I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.” – Marilyn Monroe
50. “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
51. “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
52. “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
53. “I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.” – Marilyn Monroe
54. “I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.” – Marilyn Monroe
55. “I’m trying to find the nailhead, not just strike the blow.” – Marilyn Monroe
56. “I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.” – Marilyn Monroe
57. “I’ve been on a calendar, but never on time.” – Marilyn Monroe
58. “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
59. “I’ve often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.” – Marilyn Monroe
60. “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
61. “If I’d observed all the rules I’d never have got anywhere.” – Marilyn Monroe
62. “If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.” – Marilyn Monroe
63. “If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.” – Marilyn Monroe
64. “If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.” – Marilyn Monroe
65. “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
66. “In spite of everything life is not without hope.” – Marilyn Monroe
67. “It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.” – Marilyn Monroe
68. “It’s all make believe, isn’t it?” – Marilyn Monroe
69. “It’s far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.” – Marilyn Monroe
70. “It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.” – Marilyn Monroe
71. “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
72. “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
73. “Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.” – Marilyn Monroe
74. “Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.” – Marilyn Monroe
75. “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
76. “Maybe I’ll never be able to do what I hope to, but at least I have hope.” – Marilyn Monroe
77. “Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them.” – Marilyn Monroe
78. “Men are climbing to the moon, but they don’t seem interested in the beating human heart.” – Marilyn Monroe
79. “Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.” – Marilyn Monroe
80. “Most men judge your importance in their lives by how much you can hurt them.” – Marilyn Monroe
81. “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
82. “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
83. “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
84. “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
85. “Please quote me right!” – Marilyn Monroe
86. “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
87. “Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature.” – Marilyn Monroe
88. “She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important—you know.” – Marilyn Monroe
89. “Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.” – Marilyn Monroe
90. “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
91. “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
92. “The ‘public’ scares me, but people I trust.” – Marilyn Monroe
93. “The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.” – Marilyn Monroe
94. “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
95. “The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.” – Marilyn Monroe
96. “They will only care when you’re gone.” – Marilyn Monroe
97. “This is a free and democratic country and no one has a monopoly on anything.” – Marilyn Monroe
98. “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
99. “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
100. “We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.” – Marilyn Monroe
101. “We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” – Marilyn Monroe
102. “What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.” – Marilyn Monroe
103. “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
104. “Who said nights were for sleep?” – Marilyn Monroe
105. “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
106. “You might as well make yourself fly as to make yourself love.” – Marilyn Monroe
107. “You never know what life is like, until you have lived it.” – Marilyn Monroe