Marilyn Monroe Posters

Famous Marilyn Monroe Quotes: In the Words of a Legend

Her breathtaking beauty and remarkable talent made her a superstar, but Marilyn Monroe was a complex and intense woman who ultimately succumbed to self-destruction. Few could ever claim to have truly known this extraordinary woman. Consequently, her adoring fans around the world have been continuing a search for clues that would reveal her character. Perhaps the most telling signs of who Marilyn Monroe was can be found in the many interviews she gave throughout her career. Her conversations with her hosts revealed a woman of enormous depth and insight amid an industry notorious for superficiality and frivolity.

Many memorable Marilyn Monroe quotes illustrate her wonderful sense of humor.

• "I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time!"
• "I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one."
• "It's not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on!"
• "Dogs never bite me, just humans."
• "I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it."

Few knew better than Marilyn Monroe the dark side of Hollywood.

• "In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are. Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty."
• "Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations, but it also has its drawbacks, and I've experienced them both."
• "With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else's ideas about you, but what's important is how you feel about yourself - for survival and living day to day with what comes up."
• "Well-behaved women rarely make history."

Despite her enormous success, Marilyn Monroe battled intense insecurities and longed to be loved.

• “A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.”
• “I am not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful."
• “I was never used to being happy, so that wasn't something I ever took for granted. I did sort of think, you know, marriage did that. You see, I was brought up differently from the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy - that's it, successful, happy, and on time.”
• "I was a mistake. My mother didn't want to have me. I guess she never wanted me. I probably got in her way. I know I must have disgraced her. A divorced woman has enough problems getting a man, I guess, but one with an illegitimate baby.... I wish, I still wish, she had wanted me."
• "No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they are pretty, even if they aren't."
• "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."

Many famous Marilyn Monroe quotes reveal her difficulties as a sex symbol.

• “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.”
• “I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.”
• "That's the trouble; a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather have it be sex than some other things we've got symbols of."
• "My great ambition is to have people comment on my fine dramatic performances."

Quote about her nude photographs in the very first issue of Playboy magazine.

• "It's not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on."

Marilyn Monroe's feelings about changing her name from Norma Jean.

• "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."