Famous Marilyn Monroe Quotes
“It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
Variant: Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
“Dogs never bite me. Just humans.”
As quoted in "A Beautiful Child" in Music for Chameleons (1980) by Truman Capote
“I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.”
As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41
“A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left.”
Variant: A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.
Marilyn Monroe Quotes about girls
Variant: 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.
Marilyn Monroe Quotes about love
Variant: 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.
“I love to do the things the censors won't pass.”
Variant: I love to do the things the censors won't pass.
Marilyn Monroe: Trending quotes
“Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.”
Variant: Sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together.
Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
Misattributed
“I know I will never be happy but I know I can be gay!”
As quoted in a letter to her psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson, in 1961. Fragments, by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment (2010)
Marilyn Monroe Quotes
“It's far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.”
Variant: It's far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.
Source: On Being Blonde (2007), p. 52
“I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.”
Source: Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words
Source: On Being Blonde (2007), p. 52
Context: The truth is 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. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them and fooling them.
Telegram, turning down a party invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy (13 June 1962)
Variant: Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.
“A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.”
Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
Misattributed
Last words to Peter Lawford (5 August 1962), as quoted at Spiegel Online http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/0,1518,475898,00.html <br class="br">Variant: Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.
“It's not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.”
As quoted in TIME magazine when "asked if she really had nothing on in the photograph [for a 1949 calendar]" ("Something for the Boys." Time 60, no. 6 (August 11, 1952): 90)
Variant: I had the radio on.
“I don't mind living in a man's world, as long as I can be a woman in it.”
Variant: I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.
Source: Marilyn
“If I'd observed all the rules I'd never have got anywhere.”
Variant: If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.
As quoted in The Films of Barbra Streisand (2001) by Christopher Nickens and Karen Swenson
Variant: 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 don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.”
As quoted in Her Inspiration : Secrets to Help You Work Smart, Be Successful, and Have Fun (2008) by Mina Parker
Variant: I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.
Context: Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, 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 experienced, but that's not where I live.
Her last taped interview, with Richard Meryman, published in LIFE magazine a few days before her death. (3 August 1962); quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) <!-- p. 42 -->
“Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature.”
Variant: Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature.
“I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.”
As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40
Variant: I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.
“The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.”
Handwritten note responding to a question about posing nude, as quoted in International Herald Tribune (5 October 1984)
Variant: The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
“What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course”
Variant: What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.
As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor
Variant: Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.
Variant: I used to think as I looked at 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.
