In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.

MARILYN MONROE, Marilyn Monroe in Her Own Words

It's not too much fun to know yourself too well or think you do--everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.

MARILYN MONROE, Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters (Buchthal & Comment)

I could never pretend something I didn't feel. I could never make love if I didn't love, and if I loved I could no more hide the fact than change the color of my eyes.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

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

MARILYN MONROE, Time Magazine, 1952

When I was five I think, that's when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn't like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries. It goes beyond house; you could make your own situations and you could pretend, and even if the other kids were a little slow on the imagining part, you could say, "Hey, what about if you were such and such, and I were such and such, wouldn't that be fun?" And they'd say, "Oh, yes," and then I'd say, "Well, that will be a horse and this will be ..." It was play, playfulness. When I heard that this was acting, I said that's what I want to be.

MARILYN MONROE, interview with Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Aug. 17, 1962

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, attributed, Ms. Magazine, Aug. 1972

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

MARILYN MONROE, attributed, Marilyn

A strong man doesn't have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn't match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

The truth can only be recalled, never invented.

MARILYN MONROE, diary, Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters (Buchthal & Comment)

MARILYN MONROE, Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters (Buchthal & Comment)

Yes, there was something special about me, and I knew what it was. I was the kind of girl they found dead in a hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

Dogs never bite me. Just humans.

MARILYN MONROE, "A Beautiful Child," Music for Chameleons (Capote)

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.

MARILYN MONROE, 1962 statement, attributed, Marilyn (Brown & Barham)

I've been on a calendar, but never on time.

MARILYN MONROE, Look Magazine, Mar. 5, 1957

Most men judge your importance in their lives by how much you can hurt them.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

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.

MARILYN MONROE, interview with Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Aug. 17, 1962

Happiness never becomes a habit.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

Always admired men who had many women. It must be that to a child of a dissatisfied woman the idea of monogamy is hollow.

MARILYN MONROE, Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters (Buchthal & Comment)

We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift. Art, real art, comes from it, everything.

MARILYN MONROE, interview with Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Aug. 17, 1962

People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.

MARILYN MONROE, attributed, On Being Blonde

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

MARILYN MONROE, interview with Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Aug. 17, 1962

I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.

MARILYN MONROE, attributed, Ms. Magazine, Aug. 1972

My work is the only ground I've ever had to stand on. I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation — but I'm working on the foundation.

MARILYN MONROE, attributed, Marilyn Monroe: In Her Own Words

An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.

MARILYN MONROE, attributed, Ms. Magazine, Aug. 1972

Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

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.

MARILYN MONROE, attributed, On Being Blonde

When you're young and healthy you can plan on Monday to commit suicide, and by Wednesday you're laughing again.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

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.

MARILYN MONROE, telegram to Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy, Jun. 13, 1962

You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and goddamn it, you refuse to let it get to you. you fight. you cry. You curse. Then you go about your business of living. That's how I've done it. There's no other way.

MARILYN MONROE, My Story

I remember when I got the part in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Jane Russell - she was the brunette in it and I was the blonde. She got $200,000 for it, and I got my $500 a week, but that to me was, you know, considerable. She, by the way, was quite wonderful to me. The only thing was I couldn't get a dressing room. Finally, I really got to this kind of level and I said, "Look, after all, I am the blonde, and it is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes!" Because still they always kept saying, "Remember, you're not a star." I said, "Well, whatever I am, I am the blonde!"

MARILYN MONROE, interview with Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Aug. 17, 1962

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