Marilyn Monroe

I've always wanted a baby.

What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers.

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I'd worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: 'Don't hide these things from me. I'd rather you ask me these things straight out, and I'll answer all your questions.'

I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.

I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.

I love a natural look in pictures.

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.

I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don't know who or what, maybe myself.

I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.

Someone said to me, 'If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?' My answer was then and still is, 'If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.'

I'm looking forward to becoming a marvelous - excuse the word marvelous - character actress. like Marie Dressler, like Will Rogers.

This life is what you make it. Not matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth.

I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.

When it comes to gossip, I have to readily admit men are as guilty as women.

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

I restore myself when I'm alone.

If I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein.

I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity, and that includes all kinds of parts.

Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasnt that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.

Dogs never bite me - just humans.

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.

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

Why is it you always meet people when you look your worst?

I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I'm out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.

The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn't any.

It is wonderful to have someone praise you, to be desired.

A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.

It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far.

Dogs never bite me. Just humans.

I won't be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn't mean I want them to stop looking.

What's the good of drawing in the next breath if all you do is let it out and draw in another?

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.

When I was 11, the whole world was closed to me. I just felt I was on the outside of the world.

The body is meant to be seen not all covered up.

Too often they don't realize what they have until it's gone. ...they're too stubborn to say, 'Sorry, I was wrong' they hurt the ones closest to their hearts, and we let the most foolish things tear us apart

If you spend your life competing with business men, what do you have? A bank account and ulcers!

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

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.

To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I'm working on the foundation.

We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

I am not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.

I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.

I am alone; I am always alone no matter what.

If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.

Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.

A career is a wonderful thing, but you can't snuggle up to it at night.

I think I have always had a little humor.

It's all make believe, isn't it?

If your man is a sports enthusiast, you may have to resign yourself to his spouting off in a monotone on a prize fight, football game or pennant race.

Friends accept you the way you are.

What good am I? I can't have kids. I can't cook. I've been divorced three times. Who would want me?

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can't I just be an ordinary woman?

I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, 'There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of being a movie star.' But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.

To all the girls that think you're fat because you're not a size zero, you're the beautiful one, its society who's ugly.

I remember when I was in high school I didn't have a new dress for each special occasion. The girls would bring the fact to my attention, not always too delicately. The boys, however, never bothered with the subject. They were my friends, not because of the size of my wardrobe but because they liked me.

I've always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, 'Hi,' that the people ought to get their money's worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me.

I've found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

It's nice to be included in people's fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.

A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.

A man has a tendency to accept you the way you are, while most women immediately start to pick flaws and want to change you.

A woman can't be alone. She needs a man. A man and a woman support and strengthen each other. She just can't do it by herself.

I enjoy acting when you really hit it right.

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

Sometimes, wearing a scarf and a polo coat and no makeup and with a certain attitude of walking, I go shopping or just look at people living. But then, you know, there will be a few teenagers who are kind of sharp, and they'll say, 'Hey, just a minute. You know who I think that is?' And they'll start tailing me. And I don't mind.

Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes - or just by staring into space.

Black men don't like to be called 'boys,' but women accept being called 'girls.'

Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered... to feel she is the most important thing in someone's world. Only a man can paint this picture.

The working men, I'll go by and they'll whistle. At first they whistle because they think, 'Oh, it's a girl. She's got blond hair and she's not out of shape,' and then they say, 'Gosh, it's Marilyn Monroe!'

There was my name up in lights. I said, 'God, somebody's made a mistake.' But there it was, in lights. And I sat there and said, 'Remember, you're not a star.' Yet there it was up in lights.

The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children. I used to feel for every child I had, I would adopt another.

A career is wonderful but you cant curl up with it on a cold night.

We human beings are strange creatures and still reserve the right to think for ourselves.

All little girls should be told they are pretty even if they arent.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened - as if somebody was trying to demote them.

Keep smiling because life is a beautiful thing and theres so much to smile about.

The fact is that I find more most men are more open, more generous, and much more stimulating than the majority of females I know.

I often wake up in the night, and I like to have something to think about.

I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

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.

Fame may go by and - so long, I've had you.

My dinners at home are startlingly simple. Every night, I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops or some liver, which I broil in the electric oven in my room. I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat, and that is all. I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots.

We are all of us stars and we deresrve to twinkle.

Only the public can make a star. It's the studios who try to make a system out of it.

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

I could have loved you once And said it But then you went away And when you came back Love was a forgotten word, Remember?

I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president's birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing 'Happy Birthday,' like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!'

Having a child, that's always been my biggest fear. I want a child and I fear a child.

Sometimes I've been to a party where no one spoke to me for a whole evening. The men, frightened by their wives or sweeties, would give me a wide berth. And the ladies would gang up in a corner to discuss my dangerous character.

Put on some red lipstick and live a little.

I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!

Imperfection is beauty. Madness is genius. It is better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

Just because you fail once doesnt mean youre gonna fail at everything.

When I was five I think, that's when I started wanting to be an actress.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

Girls shouldn't worry about being the equal of men in the business world.

I always have a full-length mirror next to the camera when I'm doing publicity stills. That way, I know how I look.