Top 461 Quotes & Sayings by Marilyn Monroe - Page 2

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!'

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.

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

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

I think I have always had a little humor.

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

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

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.

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.'

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

The 'public' scares me, but people I trust.

Fame is like caviar, you know - it's good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.

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

I wish I knew why I am so anguished.

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

I've never dropped anyone I believed in.

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.

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

I am invariably late for appointments - sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.

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

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 read poetry to save time.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

If you spend your life competing with business men, what do you have? A bank account and ulcers!

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

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.

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

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?

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.

Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them.

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.

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

There isn't anybody that looks like me without clothes 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.

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

If I'm a star, then the people made me a star.

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

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

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

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

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

I never wanted to be Marilyn - it just happened. Marilyn's like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

Friends accept you the way you are.

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.

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