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Marilyn quotes
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Noone seems to be honest or sincere anymore. They all want chunks out of me.
The questions often tell more about the interviewer than the answers do about me.
One woman asked me once how long I thought a whale could remain submerged before it would die. Since I hadn't the faintest idea, and any guess I might make could look ridiculous in print, I asked her why she wanted me to answer such a strange question. "It's a kind of intelligence test", she said. I wondered whose intelligence was at stake: hers or mine..
Maybe you're not supposed to believe what people say. Maybe it's not even fair to them.
It's nice to be included in people's fantasies, but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.
I think when you're famous, every weakness is exaggerated.
Everyone should get out of their house once in a while; not just sit around with their socks on!
As long as one is alive, one can be vital.
The only thing one wants most in life is usually something basic that money can't buy.
I don't like unfair criticism at any time. I feel that some of the criticism has been unfair.
Dogs never bite me. Just humans.
The least I can do is give them the best they can get from me.
About men and about her husbands:
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.
I'm not going to date any jerks the studio tells me to date. There isn't a descent man in Hollywood. They're all out for one thing. They don't even bother romancing you. Some of them are good looking and they think that's enough. To hell with that. I don't care for a man who's good looking.
Don't most women dress for men?
Any girl who resents whistles, should live in a desert island.
A formal education is never a basic cause for a marital problem. It is the emotional background that matters.
When you love a man and tell him you're going to have his child and he runs out on you, that's something a woman can never get over (about her mother).
A sense of humor is a wonderful help as far as I'm concerned in seizing up a man's personality.
Those big tough guys are so sick. They aren't even all that tough! They're afraid of kindness and gentleness and beauty. They always want to kill something to prove themselves.
I don't mind living in a men's world, as long as I can be a woman in it!
It's 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 by touching your hand or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.
I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me because of the image they have made of me and that I have made of myself
as a sex symbol. Men expect so much and I can't live up to it. They
expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the
same as any other woman's.
I've noticed that men generally leave married wome alone and treat them with respect. It's too bad for married women! Men are always ready to respect someone who bores them. And if most married women - even the pretty ones - look so dull, it's because they're getting too much respect.
Who said nights are for sleep..
A woman knows when a man's in love with her- before a man has even a clue about it.
Husbands are usually good lovers - when they're cheating their wives.
One of the things I like best about men is that they're a little vulnerable.
Wouldn't it be nice to be like men and get notches in your belt and sleep with the most attractive men and not get emotionally involved?
You fellas are always whistling at sweater girls. Well, take off their sweaters and what have you got?!
I find Nehru very attractive. He's a thinking man.
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.
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.
Men who think that a woman's past love affaires lesses her love for them, are usually stupid and weak. A woman can bring new love to each man she loves, provided they're not too many.
What good is it being a sex-star if it drives your man away?
(About jealousy:) It's like salt on a stake. All you need is a little bit of it
The Englishmen were supposed to be so nice, but they treated me like a freak, a sex freak. Gosh! Don't they have any women in England?
(About the idea of marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco:) Give me two days alone with him, and of course he'll want to marry me!
Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.
Why must I always be the aggressor with the men I want? Then as soon as I get them, nothing ever works out. Is this the cross I must bear for fame? To be a love symbol and not be loved?
How can I say? I'm not thinking of marrying at the moment. I do want to get married and have children some day, that's for sure, but I'll cross the career-marriage bridge when I get to it.
I wanted a husband and my career. I guess no husband wants to live in the shadow of his wife's fame. Noone wants to beknown as "Mr. Marilyn Monroe".
Jose Bolanos isn't at all handsome. None of my men are.
The chief drawback with men is that they're too talkative. I don't mean intellectual men who are full of information and ideas about life. It's always a delight to hear such men because they're not talking boastfully. The over-talkative men who bother me are the ones who talk about themselves. Sometimes they confine themselves to plain, uninterrupted boasting. They'll sit for an hour telling you how smart they are and how stupid everyone else around them is. Sometimes they don't even boast, but they give you an inside on what they like to eat and where they've been for the last five years.
When I sit at a table with a man, I don't think much of what I'm eating..
About her first husband,James Dougherty:
My marriage didn't make me sad, but it didn't make me happy either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to say. I was dying of boredom.
About her second husband, Joe Di Maggio:
He thought I was the best woman there was, but he never believed I could act.
Joe doesn't think any man can love me except him. He's my best friend in the world. I don't want to lose him.
Joe sweeps you off your feet without even trying.
Joe hated all my clothes. He said they were too tight and they attracted the wrong kind of attention. When I told him I had to dress like I did, that it was part of my job, he just said I should quit.
I was surprised to be so crazy about Joe. I expected a flashy New york sports type, and instead I met this reserved type who didn't make a pass at me right away. He treated me like I was something very special. Joe is a very descent man, and he makes other people feel descent too.
I think Joe has the grace and beauty of a Michelangelo. He moves like a living statue. i find him very attractive.
Joe is the moodiest man I have ever met.
Me and Joe had lots of good times but we always ended up fighting.
I wasn't Mrs. Di Maggio anymore, but he still wanted me to be his girl.
In the days of the silent movies, me and Joe would have made a great couple.
When I married Joe, I wan't sure of why I married him, I had too many fantasies of becoming a housewife.
About her third husband, Arthur Miller:
This is the first time I think I've been really in love. Arthur is a very serious man, but has a wonderful sense of humor. We laugh and joke a lot. I'm mad about him.
Arthur likes me plump.
I think Arthur secretly likes dumb blondes. Never had one before me. Some help he is!
Arthur was the only "brain" who liked me for me.
Miller was going to make my life different, better, a lot better..
Mr. Miller is a wonderful man and a great writer, but it didn't work out that we should be husband and wife.
Should I do my next picture (Some Like It hot) or stay home and try to have a baby again? That's what I really want most of all, the baby, I guess, but maybe God is trying to tell me something, I mean with my pregnancy. I'd love my child to death. I want it, yet I'm scared. Arthur says he wants it, but he's losing his enthusiasm. He thinks I should do the picture.
Arthur and I are finished. Arthur saw the demon in me.
About Yves Montand:
When he sings, he moves his body in the most erotic way. He's wonderful.
Doesn't Yves look like Joe?
We did it! It was so natural, like we were made for each other.
He said the idea of leaving his wife (Simone Signoret) was ridiculous!
(About Signoret's comments on Marilyn's and Yves' short affair:) I don't care what she says. I think it's their problem.
About herself and some of her friends and "friends":
In New York I learnt to make friends. Before I never had any friends, only conquests. I didn't have the time to find real friends, I was being looked at, had no chance to look.
I was never told what to read and nobody ever gave anything to read.
I have feelings too, I am still human. All I want is to be loved for myself and for my talent.
I think that beauty and femininity are ageless.
I consider Jane Russel to be one of the sweetest persons I've ever met and I'm happy to call her my friend.
I like a quiet evening with someone whose personality and conversation intrigues me.
Ever notice that " what the hell" is always the right decision?!
(About Sadie Thompson from "Rain":) She was a girl who knew how to be gay even when she was sad. And that's important, you know?
I like animals. If you talk to a dog or a cat, it doesn't tell you to shut up.
(About leaving her prints in front of Grauman's Chinese:) I suggested that Jane Russell leaned over the wet cement and that I sat down on it and we could leave our prints that way, but my idea was vetoed.
(About photographer Milton Greene:) One of the things that makes him such an artist is his sensitivity, his sense of introspection. It was the first time I didn't have to pose. He gave me time to think, but his camera was constantly working away.
Marilyn and Milton Greene
(About M. Greene, when she first met him:) Why, he's just a boy!
(Again about M. Greene:) I met Milton two days before he got married. When I heard about it, I was very sad.. but only for about five minutes!
I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.
I have a terrible time with numbers.
One of the things about leaving Hollywood and coming to New York and attending the Actors' Studio, is that I feel I can afford to be more myself. After all, if I can't be myself, who can I be I would like to know.
It might be kind of relief to be finished. It's sort of like you don't know what kind of yard dash you're running, but when you're at the finish line and you sort of sigh - you've made it!- you realize you never have. You have to start all over again.
Even now, the stammering comes back sometimes, when I'm nervous or overexcited.
Best in the world fits between the arms.
I don't consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.
I don't digest things with my mind. If I did, the whole thing wouldn't work. Then, I'd just be kind of an intellectual, and that I'm not interested in.
How I wished I had a dad.
I know only that I was born and that I'm still living. That's what I know.
A sex symbol becomes a thing. And I just hate to be 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! After all, it's a responsibility - being a symbol, I mean.
I do consciously think what I'm thinking about!
Even though I was born in LA, I still can't find one good thing to say about it. If I close my eyes and picture LA, all I see is one big varicose vein.
(About singing for the troops in Korea:) Standing in the snowfall, facing all these yelling soldiers, I felt for the first time in my life no fear of anything. I felt only happy.
These who know me better, know me better.
I'm nobody's slave and never have been.
There's only one sort of natural blonde on earth: albinos.
(About her bedroom voice:) I don't talk in the bedroom because I live alone.
If you think something sexy, the voice just naturally goes along.
JFK doesn't look like a President. He's too young.
I've never dropped anyone I believed in.
I don't mind making jokes, but i don't want to look like one.
I'm going to learn French. It sounds like more fun than English.
You would think all other women kept their bodies in vaults!
A lot has been written about what I do with my fanmail: that I strew it about the floor, then walk about over it in my bare feet. Silly, isn't it? I do with my fanmail exactly what it is intended for: I read it to learn how I'm doing. Fan letters can add more than a little to one's knowledge of human nature. That's something every actress must know a lot about if she's really going to build the character she is to play.
I've never been a nightclubber. When I work, I never go out.
The California climate is wonderful, but I love to see the seasons.
I want to grow old without face-lifts. 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 yourself.
I don't want to get old. I want to stay like I am.
When my face goes, my body goes, I'll be nothing, nothing..all over again.
I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it!
It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.
Creativity has got to start with humanity, and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer..
I've often stood silent at a party for hours, listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.
It has gotten me into trouble telling the truth, I mean. When I get into trouble being direct and I try to pull back, people think I'm coy.
Jerry Lewis wished me luck and told me that the most important thing for me was not to be nervous. I think he felt that. What counts isn't what he said to me, but how sincere he was.
(About travelling:) No matter where I'm gone or why, it always ends up that I never see anything.
Marilyn flying to Mexico,summer 1962
(About what should be engraved on her grave:) "Here lies Marilyn Monroe, 38 - 23 - 26!, or rather: Here lays Marilyn Monroe!".
Gee! How long can you be sexy?
How do you fight anxiety? First of all, by concentrating on something else. At the Method it's called: "putting in order". Instead of thinking "I'm an old ham", I start asking myself "Why is Gable looking at me that way? He must have his reasons". And so on.
I feel stronger if the people around on the set love me, care for me, and hold good thoughts for me. It creates an aura of love and I feel I can give a better performance.
I never intentionally mean to hurt anyone, but you can't be too nice to the people you work withm else they will trouble you to death.
I am trying to prove to myself that I am a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
I'm not what you'd call a TV fan.
If I can't be a mother, I'd better be an actress. I have to be something, And whatever it is, I'm going to be good at it!
I don't envy housewives. I don't envy their lives. I don't even want their problems. And I don't want my own problems either!
I feel different about a child now. It's one of the things I dream of.
I have never been very good at being a member of any group - more than a group of two, that is.
Very few of my friends know I can play the piano.
36 is great when kids 12 to 17 still whistle. What would I do if the whistlng ever stopped? I'd probably just work at it harder.
I'm interested in all the Arts, I'm even interested in people.
You know, I like playing around in the garden. It's sort of fun. All there is work and there's love.
I've always had a talent for making everything grow.
The one thing I hate more than anything else is being used!
It's amazing how much a person's mind has a capacity for recalling.
When I started out in the movies, I used to go to night school. The headmistress didn't know who I was and couldn't understand why boys from other classes sometimes popped their heads through the door during a class to look at me and whisper. One day, she decided to ask my classmates, who told her I acted inmovies. She said: "And I took her for a young girl straight out of a convent!". That's one of the biggest compliments I've ever been paid.

(About her being late all the time:) I have a reputation of always being late. Well, I don't think I'm late all the time. People just remember the times I come in too late. Besides, I really don't think I can go as fast as other people. They get into their cars, they run into each other, they never stop. I don't think mankind was intended to be like machines. Besides, it's a great waste of time - you get more done doing it more sensibly, more leisurely. I f I have to get to the studio, to rush through the hairdo and the make-up and the clothes, I'm all worn out by the time I have to do a scene.
( About her walk:) I've never deliberately done anything about the way I walk. I just wa;k to get there. I wasn't deliberate about it in the picture "Niagara", where people say i walk all wigglu and wobbly. I don't know what they mean. I just walk. I've never wiggled deliberately in my life but all my life I've had trouble with people who say I do wiggle deliberately. In high school the other girls would ask me,"Why do you walk down the hall THAT way?". I guess the boys must have been watching me and it made the other girls mad - but I said, "I don't know what you mean". I learnt to walk when I was 10 months old and I've been walking this way ever since..".
I don't know what they mean by "horizontal walk". Naturally I know what walking means - anybody knows that- and horizontal means not vertical. So what?
I use walking to get me around..
Fame is fickle and I know it. I'd rather rely on myself.
(In response to Joan Crawford:) Although I don't know Miss Crawford very well, she was a symbol to me of kindness and understanding to those who need help. At first, all I could think was why should she select me to blast? She's a great star..I'm just starting. And when the first hurt began to die down, I told myself she must have spoken impulsively, without thinking..
(About Marlon Brando:) I read recently that before Joe, I had had a secret romance with Marlon Brando. That's not true either. I have met Marlon and I like him both as a person and as an actor. I think he is one of the finest actors on screen. I have been receiving letters from teenagers who adore Marlon, suggest that I play in a picture with him. Maybe I'll forward these to Zanuck.
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