Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 – 5 August 1962) was an American actress, singer and model.

• I had the radio on.
  • As quoted in TIME magazine when "asked if she had nothing on in the photograph [for a 1949 calendar]" ("Something for the Boys." Time 60, no. 6 (August 11, 1952): 90)

• 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 leeways 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's diaries (1958), as quoted in Fragments (2010), by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment

• For life: It is rather a determination not to be overwhelmed. For work: The truth can only be recalled, never invented.
  • Marilyn's diaries, as quoted in Fragments (2010), by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment

• It's a bad habit, I know, but I believe that you shouldn't do anything in life until you're ready. Half of life's heartaches come from decisions made in a hurry. One should make haste slowly.
  • On her lack of punctuality, as quoted in "Tardy but Talented" by James Bacon (AP), The Louisville Courier-Journal (July 17, 1960), p. 84

• I know I will never be happy but I know I can be gay! Remember I told you Kazan said I was the gayest girl he ever knew; believe me, he has known many. But he loved me for one year and once rocked me to sleep one night when I was in great anguish. He also suggested that I go into analysis and later wanted me to work with Lee Strasberg. Was it Milton who wrote: "The happy ones were never born"? I know at least two psychiatrists who are looking for a more positive approach.
  • In a letter to her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, in 1961, quoted in Marilyn's Last Sessions (2010) by Michel Schneider

• 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.
  • Statement c. 1962, as quoted in Marilyn (1992) by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham, Ch. 30

• Unfortunately, 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.
  • Telegram, turning down a party invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy (13 June 1962)

• I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated. ... Goethe said, "Talent is developed in privacy," you know? And it's 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 Pours Her Heart Out" interview by Richard Meryman, in Life (3 August 1962)

• Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president, and say goodbye to yourself because you're a nice guy. ... I'll see, I'll see.
  • Last words to Peter Lawford (5 August 1962), as quoted at Spiegel Online

• 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.
  • Her last taped interview, with Richard Meryman, was published in LIFE magazine a few days before her death. (3 August 1962); quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972)

• Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.
  • Last words to actor Peter Lawford, in August 1962, as quoted in US News & World Report (7 October 1985)

• An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.
  • As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 38

• Why? — It paid the rent.
  • On why she had posed nude for a calendar photograph, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 39

• I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.
  • As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

• That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of... I hate to be a thing.
  • Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

• I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.
  • As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

• The studio people want me to do "Goodbye 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.
  • On turning down a role, eventually played by Debbie Reynolds, as quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

• First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
  • As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 42

• The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves. Men sometimes 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.
  • My Story (1974; co-written with Ben Hecht; 2007 edition), p. 133
  • Variant: 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 loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them and fooling them.
    • As paraphrased in On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes (2004) by Paula Munier, p. 52

• If you get massages, you'll never need another sleeping pill.
  • As quoted in Marilyn Monroe Confidential (1980) by Lena Pepitone and William Stedien p. 172

• Dogs never bite me. Just humans.
  • As quoted in "A Beautiful Child" in Music for Chameleons (1980) by Truman Capote

• I don't know who invented the high heel, but all women owe him a lot. Excuse the pun, but it was the high heel that gave a big lift to my career.
  • As quoted in "When it comes to shoes, practicality often takes a back seat" by Mary T. Schmich, The Orlando Sentinel (November 9, 1983), p. 51

• The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
  • Handwritten note responding to a question about posing nude, as quoted in International Herald Tribune (5 October 1984)

• Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.
  • As quoted in Marilyn Monroe: In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

• 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.
  • As quoted in Marilyn Monroe: In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

• Hollywood's 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.
  • As quoted in Marilyn Monroe: In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

• When you're famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. It stirs up envy, fame does. People, you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothes, not you.
  • Comment on fame, quoted in Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress (1993) by Carl E. Rollyson, and in Symbolic Leaders: Public Dramas and Public Men (2006) by Orrin Edgar Klapp
  • Variant: People feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothing.
  • As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

• 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.
  • As quoted in The Films of Barbra Streisand (2001) by Christopher Nickens and Karen Swenson

• I sleep in the nude but I pull the sheets up.
  • Jock Carroll, "Rare Marilyn: a portfolio work by 20 photographers", American Photo (May - June 1997)

• I guess I never felt I affected people until I was in Korea.
  • As quoted in Marilyn: a biography (1973) by Norman Mailer p. 21

• The sweaters were hand-me-downs. They were too small for me, and I guess that's what made everyone take notice. But it made me feel important. Men were looking at me for the first time. And I liked it. I felt good in them. And when I felt how tight they held me in, I quit wearing a bra.
  • As quoted in The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (1974) by Robert F. Slatzer p. 67

• Elizabeth Taylor converted too. So we're both Jewish.
  • As quoted in Marilyn Monroe Confidential (1980) by Lena Pepitone and William Stedian p. 185

• People have curious attitudes about nudity just as they have about sex. Nudity and sex are the most commonplace things in the world. Yet people often act as if they were things that only existed on Mars.
  • As quoted in My Story (2006) by Marilyn Monroe and Ben Hecht p. 60

Quotes of Monroe from On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes (2004) by Paula Munier

• It's far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.
  • p. 52

• It stirs up envy, fame does. People, you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothes, not you.
  • p. 52

• A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night.
  • p. 53

• Arthur Miller wouldn't have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.
  • p. 54

• 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 lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.
  • p. 54

Sorted alphabetically by author or source.

• She came up to me and said, "You're going to play my uncle, right?" "That's right, Miss Monroe." Then she looked at me and said, "No incest."
  • Elisha Cook, Jr, on meeting Monroe for the first time, on the set of Don't Bother to Knock; as quoted in "We Know That Face; But What's His Name?" by Paul Ben-Itzak (Reuters), The Windsor Star (December 15, 1987), p. 33

• I think Marilyn is bound to make an almost overwhelming impression on the people who meet her for the first time. It is not that she is pretty, although she is of course almost incredibly pretty, but she radiates, at the same time, unbounded vitality and a kind of unbelievable innocence. I have met the same in a lion-cub, which my native servants in Africa brought me. I would not keep her, since I felt that it would in some way be wrong...I shall never forget the almost overpowering feeling of unconquerable strength and sweetness which she conveyed. I had all the wild nature of Africa amicably gazing at me with mighty playfulness.
  • Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), in a letter to the American author, Fleur Cowles Meyer, in 1961, as quoted in Fragments (2010), by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment

• Marilyn Monroe’s suicide made headlines when I was twenty-two years old and struggling to find my place in the world. We were both working class in background, but there any comparison ended. While I was a doctor’s assistant by day and a pariah dyke wearing boys’ clothes by night, Marilyn was the most heterosexual, “most beautiful” and most desired in the public world. She was a star, she kept company with America’s biggest male stars—Mickey Mantle of baseball, Arthur Miller of literature, John F. Kennedy of politics. And at what seemed the height of a gloriously successful career, she killed herself. Or that was the story. then. Since, it has changed, from a conspiracy that she was murdered, to the more plausible reason: the accidental overdose of an addict. I was upset by her death; if she could not succeed in life, how on earth could I? And yet, her image did not fade; she continues to hold a position as an icon of sexual power.
  • Judy Grahn Interview (2021)

• Hawks says it's wonderful we knew and worked with Marilyn before she got difficult. Because she was so winning and adorable in Monkey Business [1952]. When I drink that youth serum and I'm acting like a teenager, Marilyn really got into it. I'm diving off the high board and she's giggling and waving me on. Years later she asked me to costar in something called The Billionaire. It was a comedy and she said her husband Arthur Miller was reworking it. Arthur Miller a comedy writer? I ran away and so did Greg Peck, and the completed film, Let's Make Love [1960], showed she'd become all blurry and distant. It was sad.
  • Cary Grant, as quoted in Conversations with Classic Film Stars (2016) by James Bawden and Ron Miller, pp. 123–124

• We think of Marilyn who was every man's love affair with America. Marilyn Monroe who was blonde and beautiful and had a sweet little rinky-dink of a voice and all the cleanliness of all the clean American backyards.
  • Norman Mailer, in Marilyn (1973), Ch. 1

• There are people so vivid in life that they seem not to disappear when they die, and for many weeks I found myself having to come about and force myself to encounter the fact that Marilyn had ended. I realized that I still, even then, expected to meet her once more, somewhere, sometime, and maybe talk sensibly about all the foolishness we had been through — in which case I would probably have fallen in love with her again. And the iron logic of her death did not help much: I could still see her coming across the lawn, or touching something, or laughing, at the same time that I confronted the end of her as one might stand watching the sinking sun. When a reporter called asking if I would be attending her funeral in California, the very idea of a burial was outlandish, and stunned as I was, I answered without thinking, "She won't be there." I could hear his astonishment, but I could only hang up, it was beyond explaining.
  • Arthur Miller in Timebends: A Life (1987)

• To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes.
  • Arthur Miller in Timebends: A Life (1987)

• The women she played were totally unreal. Her vulnerability in her flesh was as compelling and audible as a baby crying, but she played either a gold digger-the woman who can only be bought or the child/whore who asks nothing whatsoever, who is available like a tray of hors d'oeuvres at a cocktail party. In The Seven Year Itch she is the total male fantasy of available snatch, a gorgeous woman without any entanglements, no friends, no family, no demands, who wants only a married man since he won't fall in love with her. What living woman could ever identify with that character?...Her career began with the famous nude calendar, although the most lasting images are at once dressed and undressed-the pose on the subway grating, for instance. She wears a flimsy looking halter dress that flies up, deserting her. She is the embodiment of titillation. Any man can dream of possessing her, because she seems so accessible and defenseless. For a man, that image on which can be projected any fantasy, any wish fulfillment, is the source of her immense and lasting appeal. She is a living doll-the perfect body that offers everything and asks nothing. She embodies the woman who never was because she isn't anything in herself. That image was something she put on to go out into the frightening and hostile world. She had learned early that she would be rewarded if she appeared compliant and childlike, not in the sense of the virgin to be deflowered, but in the sense of the woman who doesn't understand, doesn't know what to do, never learns a lesson; the warm and sensual Galatea who never gets up and leaves Pygmalion, but waits passively for the next owner. But behind that façade was a woman needy, scared, ambitious, leaking self-hatred and desperately wanting something real and solid and important. She wanted to be...respected. She never was.
  • Marge Piercy "TABULA RASA WITH BOOBS" in My Life, My Body (2015)

• When Marilyn Monroe got out of the game, I wrote something like, "Southern California's special horror notwithstanding, if the world offered nothing, nowhere to support or make bearable whatever her private grief was, then it is that world, and not she, that is at fault."
  I wrote that in the first few shook-up minutes after hearing the bulletin sandwiched in between Don and Phil Everly and surrounded by all manner of whoops and whistles coming out of an audio signal generator, like you are apt to hear on the provincial radio these days. But I don't think I'd take those words back.
  • Thomas Pynchon in a letter to Jules Siegel, published in Cavalier magazine (August 1965)

• If Marilyn is in love with my husband it proves she has good taste, for I am in love with him too.
  • Simone Signoret, responding to rumors that her husband Yves Montand was romantically involved with Monroe. The New York Journal-American (14 November 1960)

• I remember her on the screen, huge as a colossus doll, mincing and whispering and simply hoping her way into total vulnerability.
  • Gloria Steinem from "Marilyn Monroe: The Woman who Died Too Soon" in Ms. magazine (August 1972); later published in Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983)

• You want me to talk about Marilyn? My God, I think there have been more books on Marilyn Monroe than on World War II, and there's a great similarity.
  It was a very complex thing working with her because she had tremendous problems with herself. She was on the edge of deep depression – whatever you want to call it – at all times. There was always a question, which you sweated out: "Is she going to show up? Is she going to show up on time? Is she going to live through the scene? Is she going to finish the picture?" And that is a very nerve-wracking thing if you've got eight million dollars in the enterprise. But when it's all done, it's well worth it. It's that old thing that I said, I don't know, four hundred years ago: "Look, if we wanted somebody to be on time and to know the lines just perfectly, I've got an old aunt in Vienna. She's going to be there at five in the morning and never miss a word. But who wants to look at her?"
  • Billy Wilder, in an interview at AFI Conservatory (13 December 1970), in American Film; also in Billy Wilder: Interviews (2001), p. 113

• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953 film)
• How to Marry a Millionaire
• Niagara (1953 film)]
• Some Like It Hot

• Marilyn Monroe on IMDb
• Archival newsreels of Monroe
• Coverage of Monroe's death and aftermath by the Los Angeles Times