“That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of… I just hate to be a thing.”

— Marilyn Monroe

Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

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Marilyn Monroe 149

American actress, model, and singer 1926–1962

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“A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40
Context: That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of... I just hate to be a thing.

“If you're not a sex symbol, you're in trouble.”

Helen Gurley Brown (1922–2012) American author, editor, publisher, and businesswoman

“Whatever my film work was, it was a departure from the sex symbol previously, who was blonde and more docile than the characters I portrayed as a sex symbol…I think it was a different role for women. Women watch other women, and they are affected by that.”

Raquel Welch (1940–2023) American actress

On how she felt that her early roles were a form of liberation in “Body of Work: Screen Siren Raquel Welch Gets Her Lincoln Center Retrospective” https://observer.com/2012/02/body-of-work-screen-siren-raquel-welch-gets-her-lincoln-center-retrospective/ in The Observer (2012 Feb 7)

“.

"Most times, when I'm having sex, I'd rather be reading."
This was, I admit, a strange thing to say on a second date.
I guess I was just giving you a warning.
"Most times when I'm reading," you said, "I'd rather be having sex".”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“I'm aware that people see me as a sex symbol, and it’s getting me attention. But I know I can act.”

Diora Baird (1983) American actress and model

[Cory, Jones, "Who's Your Caddy?", August 2006, Maxim Magazine Online, http://www.maximonline.com/articles/index.aspx?a_id=7251, 2007-01-23]

“Any actor who thinks they're a sex symbol? Cringe.”

Jonathan Bailey (1988) British actor

"Jonathan Bailey: Jonathan Bailey Is Giving Us the Vapors" in GQ https://www.gq.com/story/gq-hype-jonathan-bailey (9 March 2022)

“Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

“A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Attributed to Monroe on social media, but this quote was actually said by Clara Bow.
Misattributed

“[A]t its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.”

John D. Carmack (1970) American computer programmer, engineer, and businessman

Quoted in John Carmack Biography http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Carmack_John.html.

“There is imagery. Symbolism is a difficult idea. I'm not a symbolist. In other words, these are painting experiences. I don't decide in advance that am going to paint a definite experience, but in the act of painting, it becomes a genuine experience for me. It's not symbolism any more than it's calligraphy. I'm not painting bridge constructions, skyscrapers or laundry tickets.... I don't paint a given object – a figure or a table; I paint an organization that becomes a painting.... it's not these things that get me started on a painting.”

Franz Kline (1910–1962) American painter

1958
1960's, Talks with Seventeen Artists, 1962

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