Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actress Marilyn Monroe.
Last updated on September 9, 2024.
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, and model. 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 a decade, and her films grossed $200 million by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, Monroe remains a major icon of pop culture. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her sixth on their list of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night.
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.
I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.
I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.
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.
Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.
Fame doesn't fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.
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.
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.
It's all make believe, isn't it?
If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.
What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.
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.
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.
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 have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.
The truth is, I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves.
Black men don't like to be called 'boys,' but women accept being called 'girls.'
If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.
Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.
I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.
Fear is stupid. So are regrets.
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.
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.
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.
A smart girl leaves before she is left.
I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.
A career is born in public - talent in privacy.
If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it's that I've never been a kept woman.
It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.
Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.
Dogs never bite me - just humans.
I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!
The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.
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.
We should all start to live before we get too old.
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.
I am alone; I am always alone no matter what.
The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time.
Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.
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.
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.
We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.
I think that sexuality is only attractive when it's natural and spontaneous.
I like to feel blonde all over.
I defy gravity.
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.
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.
You know, most people really don't know me.
I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.
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.
I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one.
I restore myself when I'm alone.
I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that's not easy.
I don't want everybody to see exactly where I live, what my sofa or my fireplace looks like.
A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.
Respect is one of life's greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don't have that?