Portrait of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Hollywood icon

Modern influential 139 sayings

Sayings by Marilyn Monroe

Your clothes should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to show you're a lady.

Undated — Various attributed sources
General Unverifiable

There isn't anybody that looks like me without clothes on.

Undated — Various attributed sources
General Unverifiable

If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it's that I've never been a kept woman.

Undated — Various attributed sources
Self-Deprecating Unverifiable

Fame will go by, and, 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.

Undated — Interview with Life magazine
General Unverifiable

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

Undated — Various interviews
Self-Deprecating Confirmed

Everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don' think they realize it, but it's like 'grrr do this, grr do that…' But you do want to stay intact–intact and on two feet.

Undated — Various interviews
Self-Deprecating Unverifiable

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

1960 — Interview for W.J Wetherby
Life & Aging Unverifiable

I defy gravity.

Undated — Anecdotal, from a collection of quotes about her
General Unverifiable

I'm a good girl, but I'm also a bad girl. And I'm a mess. And I'm beautiful. And I'm ugly. And I'm smart. And I'm stupid. And I'm all of those things. You know, I'm just a person.

1962 — Interview with Richard Meryman, Life Magazine
Life & Aging Unverifiable

I'm trying to find myself. Sometimes that's not easy.

1950s — Interview snippet
Self-Deprecating Unverifiable

Sometimes I’ve been to a party where I’ve been the only woman. That’s not a party.

1950s — Reported quote
General Unverifiable

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

1960 — Interview
General Unverifiable

Success is a public thing, failure is a private thing.

1950s — Reported quote
General Unverifiable

The public is a wild animal and the critics are the whips in its trainers' hands.

1950s — Reported quote
General Unverifiable

That's the trouble, you see. To some people, 'Marilyn Monroe' is just a joke. To me, she's an enigma, a puzzle, a mystery woman.

1962 — Interview with George Barris
General Unverifiable

I am not a victim of emotional conflicts, I am a victim of the fact that I am a woman.

1950s — Reported quote
Self-Deprecating Unverifiable

I never fooled anyone. I let them 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.

1950s — Attributed, often linked to 'My Story'
General Unverifiable

I knew I was an unwanted baby. I knew I was unwanted when I was born, and all my life I've never been wanted. I've always been the property of someone else.

1950s — Reported quote, often attributed to conversations with friends/biographers
Self-Deprecating Unverifiable

I don't mind being recognized, but I don't like being stared at. And I don't like being pawed.

1950s — Reported quote
Self-Deprecating Unverifiable

Husbands are like fires. They go out if left unattended.

1950s — Reported quote
Relationships Unverifiable
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