Marilyn Monroe Inspiring Quotations

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

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.

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

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

Next to my husband, and along with Marlon Brando, I think that Yves Montand is the most attractive man I've ever met.

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

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

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

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.

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

Consider the fellow. He never spends his time telling you about his previous night's date. You get the idea he has eyes only for you and wouldn't think of looking at another woman.

Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them.

Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered... to feel she is the most important thing in someone's world. Only a man can paint this picture.

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

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

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

Fame doesn't fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.

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.

Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn't miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.

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.

Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

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 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.

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I'd worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: 'Don't hide these things from me. I'd rather you ask me these things straight out, and I'll answer all your questions.'

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

I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that's not easy.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

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

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.

If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.

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.

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.

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

I am alone; I am always alone no matter what.

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

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 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.

I often wake up in the night, and I like to have something to think about.

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

I don't want everybody to see exactly where I live, what my sofa or my fireplace looks like.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll be a great actress.

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

I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!

Confidentially, the type of male I find most enjoyable for a friend is one who has enough fire and assurance to speak up for his convictions.

Respect is one of life's greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don't have that?

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

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 guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone's wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.

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.

Only the public can make a star. It's the studios who try to make a system out of it.

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

I just got to feel that whoever I marry has some real regard for me.

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.

Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, 'One tear, right now,' that one tear would pop out.

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

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

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

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?

I always have a full-length mirror next to the camera when I'm doing publicity stills. That way, I know how I look.

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.

First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

Black men don't like to be called 'boys,' but women accept being called 'girls.'

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin?

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

Someday I want to have children and give them all the love I never had.

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

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

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

I don't look at myself as a commodity, but I'm sure a lot of people have.

I have noticed... that men usually leave married women alone and are inclined to treat all wives with respect. This is no great credit to married women.

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

I don't consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.

The fact is that I find more most men are more open, more generous, and much more stimulating than the majority of females I know.

I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.

Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.

The public doesn't mind people living together without being married, providing they don't overdo it.

How do I know about a man's needs for a sex symbol? I'm a girl.

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.

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.

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

Everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don' think they realize it, but it's like 'grrr do this, grr do that' But you do want to stay intact-intact and on two feet.

I like to feel blonde all over.

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.

Speaking of Oscars, I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my best acting convincing my partners I was in the throes of ecstasy.

Personally, I react to Marlon Brando. He's a favorite of mine.

People always ask me if I believe diamonds are a girl's best friend. Frankly, I don't.

Nearly everyone I knew talked to me about God. They always warned me not to offend Him.

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.

As long as I can remember, I've always loved people.

Let yourself go, the pleasure of physical movement is so important. If that's a problem, you say to yourself, what is there that I am afraid of, or hiding? Maybe your libido!

I've never liked the name Marilyn. I've often wished that I had held out that day for Jean Monroe. But I guess it's too late to do anything about it now.

I learned also that the best way to keep out of trouble was by never complaining or asking for anything.

I have always felt comfortable in blue jeans. I have found it interesting, however, that people also whistle at blue jeans. I have to admit that I like mine to fit. There's nothing I hate worse than baggy blue jeans.

Happiness never becomes a habit.

I enjoy acting when you really hit it right. And I guess I've always had too much fantasy to be only a housewife.

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.

As far as I can make out, women's friendships with each other are based on a gush of lies and pretty speeches that mean nothing. You'd think they were all wolves trying to seduce each other the way they flatter and flirt when they're together.