“Always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie”
Variant: Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will?
Marilyn Monroe:
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Marilyn Monroe Quotes
On turning down a role, eventually played by Debbie Reynolds, as quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41
“An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.”
As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 38
As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor
Marilyn's personal diaries, as quoted in Fragments (2010), by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment
“I sleep in the nude but I pull the sheets up.”
Jock Carroll, "Rare Marilyn: a portfolio work by 20 photographers", American Photo (May - June 1997)
As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 42
Variant: First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
“Arthur Miller wouldn't have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.”
Source: On Being Blonde (2007), p. 54
"Marilyn Monroe Pours Her Heart Out" interview by Richard Meryman, in LIFE (3 August 1962)
Comment on fame, quoted in Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress (1993) by Carl E. Rollyson, and in Symbolic Leaders: Public Dramas and Public Men (2006) by Orrin Edgar Klapp
Variant: People feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothing.
As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40
Context: When you're famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothes not you.
Statement c. 1962, as quoted in Marilyn (1992) by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham, Ch. 30
Variant: I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they've made of me — and that I've made of myself — as a sex symbol. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman's and I can't live up to it.
I know at least two psychiatrists who are looking for a more positive approach.
In a letter to her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, in 1961, quoted in Marilyn's Last Sessions (2010) by Michel Schneider
On why she had posed nude for a calendar photograph, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 39
Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40
My Story (1974; co-written with Ben Hecht; 2007 edition), p. 133 Variant: 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. As paraphrased in On Being Blonde : Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes (2004) by Paula Munier, p. 52
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Marilyn Monroe / Quotes
On Being Blonde (2007)
“I guess I never felt I had an effect on people until I was in Korea.”
As quoted in Marilyn: a biography (1973) by Norman Mailer p. 21
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)
“A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.”
Attributed to Monroe on social media, but this quote was actually said by Clara Bow.
Misattributed
Source: As quoted in My Story (2006) by Marilyn Monroe and Ben Hecht p. 60
“If you get massages, you'll never need another sleeping pill.”
Source: As quoted in Marilyn Monroe Confidential (1980) by Lena Pepitone and William Stedien p. 172
As quoted in "When it comes to shoes, practicality often takes a back seat" https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=85010977 by Mary T. Schmich, The Orlando Sentinel (November 9, 1983), p. 51
On her lack of punctuality, as quoted in "Tardy but Talented" https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22039844/the-courier-journal/ by James Bacon (AP), The Louisville Courier-Journal (July 17, 1960), p. 84
