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her quotes:

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

• If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.

• I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.

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

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

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

• I'm trying to find myself as a person, sometimes that's not easy to do. Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do. The best way for me to find myself as a person is to prove to myself that I am an actress.

• I am trying to prove to myself that I am a person. Then may be I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

• People respect you because they feel you've survived hard times and endured, and although you've become famous, you haven't become phony.

• Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer.

• I love to do the things the censors won't pass.

• What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can't I just be an ordinary woman? A woman who can have a family ... I'd settle for just one baby. My own baby.

• I have too many fantasies to be a housewife.... I guess I am a fantasy.

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

• It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.

• It's better for the whole world to know you, even as a sex star, than never to be known at all.

• 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.

• Acting isn't something you do. Instead of doing it, it occurs. If you're going to start with logic, you might as well give up. You can have conscious preparation, but you have unconscious results.

• A career is born in public -- talent in privacy.

• My illusions didn't have anything to do with being a fine actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!

• 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'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

• Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.

• If I play a stupid girl and ask a stupid question I've got to follow it through. What am I supposed to do - look intelligent?

• 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.

• To a reporter: Please don't make me a joke.

• 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 sex than some other things we've got symbols of.

• Everyone's just laughing at me. I hate it. Big breasts, big ***, big deal, Can't I be anything else ? Gee, how long can you be sexy?

• Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.

• Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.

• It's woman's spirit and mood a man has to stimulate in order to make sex interesting. The real lover is the man who can thrill you by touching your head or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.

• Men who think that a woman's past love affairs lessen her love for them are usually stupid and weak. A woman can bring a new love to each man she loves, providing there are not too many.

• Of the nude pictures: Sure I posed. I needed the money.

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

• I am invariably late for appointments ... sometimes, as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the thing

These are a couple of my favourites:

"If I am a star, the people made me a star. No studio, no person, but the people did."

"Beneath the make-up and behind the mask I am just a girl who wishes for the world."

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

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

"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."

Some others:

I'm trying to find myself as a person, sometimes that's not easy to do. Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do. The best way for me to find myself as a person is to prove to myself that I am an actress.

I am trying to prove to myself that I am a person. Then may be I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

People respect you because they feel you've survived hard times and endured, and although you've become famous, you haven't become phony.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can't I just be an ordinary woman? A woman who can have a family ... I'd settle for just one baby. My own baby.

I have too many fantasies to be a housewife.... I guess I am a fantasy.

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

•It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.

It's better for the whole world to know you, even as a sex star, than never to be known at all.

• 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.

Acting isn't something you do. Instead of doing it, it occurs. If you're going to start with logic, you might as well give up. You can have conscious preparation, but you have unconscious results.

A career is born in public -- talent in privacy.

My illusions didn't have anything to do with being a fine actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!

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'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic.

[Johann Wolfgang Goethe] said, "Talent is developed in privacy", you know? And it's really true. There is a need for aloneness which I don't think most people realize for an actor. It's almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you'll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you're acting.

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.

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

If I had observed all the rules, I'd never have gotten anywhere.

I want to grow old without face-lifts... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face that I have made.

It's often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone.

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. Men expect so much, and I can't live up to it.

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, you know, of any kind of nature - and it won't hurt your feelings.

Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has it's compensations but it also has it's drawbacks, and I've experienced them both.

Happy Birthday, Mr.President

Marilyn Monroe (1 June 1926 – 5 August 1962) was an American actress, singer, model, and one of the most famous Hollywood icons of the twentieth century.

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3 Quotes about Monroe

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

On reports of her nude photographs for a calendar, as quoted in TIME magazine (1952)

Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?

As "Lorelei Lee" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

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

Look magazine (5 March 1957)

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.

Statement c. 1962, as quoted in Marilyn (1992) by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham, Ch. 27

Unfortunately, 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.

Telegram, turning down a party invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy (13 June 1962)

Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one. I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity.Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live.

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)

Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.

Last words to actor Peter Lawford, in August 1962, as quoted in US News & World Report (7 October 1985)

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

Why? — It paid the rent.

On why she had posed nude for a calendar photograph, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 39

I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.

As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

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

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

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

As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

The studio people want me to do "Good-bye Charlie" for the movies, but I'm not going to do it. I don't like the idea of playing a man in a woman's body — you know? It just doesn't seem feminine.

On turning down a role, eventually played by Debbie Reynolds, as quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul...First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 42

Dogs never bite me. Just humans.

As quoted in "A Beautiful Child" in Music for Chameleons (1980) by Truman Capote

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

Handwritten note responding to a question about posing nude, as quoted in International Herald Tribune (5 October 1984)

Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.

As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

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.

As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.

As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.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