Marilyn Monroe

Quotes

With Special Guest:

Quotes from Marilyn Monroe...  obviously so much more than the “dumb blonde” she played in the movies:

• If a man doesn't want you at your worst, then he sure as hell doesn't deserve you at your best.

• How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.

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

• Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.

• It's 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 by touching your head or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.

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

• If you're gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.

• 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.

• I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you learn to appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

• I’m pretty, but I am not beautiful. I’m good, but I am not an angel. I sin, but I’m not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.

• A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left.

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

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

• 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.

• Ever notice how 'What the hell' is always the right answer?

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

• We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

• 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.

• She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important.

• Who said nights were for sleep?

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

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

• If I'd observed all the rules I'd never have gotten anywhere.

• 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.

• 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.

• Dogs never bite me. Just humans.

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

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

• I restore myself when I'm alone.

• Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.

• It's all make believe, isn't it?

• We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift.

• 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.

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

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

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

• I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.

• All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same.

• Friendship is the best thing that comes to life. Friends will always be there for you. Don't worry about the fakes, worry about the people who had your back from the start and never treated you wrong. Always remember they are your real friends. Don't ever take them for granted.

• Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

• It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.

• 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 live to succeed, not to please you or anyone else.

• A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.

• 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.

• Some people have been unkind. If I say I want to grow as an actress, they look at my figure. If I say I want to develop, to learn my craft, they laugh. Somehow they don't expect me to be serious about my work.

• Dreaming about being an actress is more exciting than being one.

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

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

• Love and work are the only two real things in our lives. They belong together, otherwise it is off. Work is in itself a form of love.

• 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.

• Boys think girls are like books... If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.

• I read poetry to save time.

• I'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic.

• Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always trust yourself, because if you don't then who will?

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

• The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children. I used to feel that for every child I had I would adopt another.

• But chiefly, no lies! No lies about there being a Santa Claus or about the world being full of noble and honorable people all eager to help each other and do good to each other. I'll tell her there are honor and goodness in the world, the same as there are diamonds and radium.

• A career is born in public -- talent in privacy.

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

• 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.

• To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not a size zero, you’re the beautiful one, it's society who’s ugly.

• 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.

• Your clothes should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to show you're a lady.

• I could never pretend something I didn't feel. I could never make love if I didn't love, and if I loved I could no more hide the fact than change the color of my eyes.

• I wanted to ask a thousand questions, but there was no one to ask. Besides I knew that people only told lies to children - lies about everything from soup to Santa Claus.

• For those who are poor in happiness, each time is a first time; happiness never becomes a habit.

• Keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.

• When you're young and healthy you can plan on Monday to commit suicide, and by Wednesday you're laughing again.

• 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?

• That's the trouble... a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather have it sex than some other things we've got symbols of.

• 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.

• 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.

• The first effect marriage had on me was to increase my lack of interest in sex.... Actually our marriage was a sort of friendship with sexual privileges.

• Too often they don't realize what they have until it's gone....they're too stubborn to say 'Sorry, I was wrong' and they hurt the ones closest to their hearts. And we let the most foolish things tear us apart.

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

• Suicide is a person’s privilege. I don't believe it's a sin or a crime it's your right if you do. Though it doesn't get you anywhere.

• 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.

• 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.

• I watched the faces of the listeners when the minister would cry out how much God loved them and how much they needed to set themselves right with God. They were faces without any argument in them, just tired faces that were glad to hear Somebody loved them.

• 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. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway - but just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world.

• As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And babe, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up you'll never find your soul mate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole, and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.