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!'
— Marilyn Monroe
I have never cared especially for outdoor sports and have no desire to excel at tennis, swimming, or golf. I'll leave those things to the men.
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.
I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.
Next to my husband, and along with Marlon Brando, I think that Yves Montand is the most attractive man I've ever met.
An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin?
How do I know about a man's needs for a sex symbol? I'm a girl.
I learned to walk as a baby, and I haven't had a lesson since.
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.'
Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know you.
Beauty and femininity are ageless and can't be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won't like this, cannot be manufactured. Not real glamour; it's based on femininity.
Fear is stupid. So are regrets.
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.
If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it's that I've never been a kept woman.
The truth is, I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves.
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.
When it comes to gossip, I have to readily admit men are as guilty as women.
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.
I have evolved my own exercises, for the muscles I wish to keep firm, and I know they are right for me because I can feel them putting the proper muscles into play as I exercise.
If I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein.
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.
I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll be a great actress.
My public is growing up just as I am. After all, I'm not 19 anymore and if I stick with the sex bit, who will be paying to see me when I'm 50?
I don't consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.
Only the public can make a star. It's the studios who try to make a system out of it.
I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.
I've often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.
I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.
We should all start to live before we get too old.
I don't look at myself as a commodity, but I'm sure a lot of people have.
Respect is one of life's greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don't have that?
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.
Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition for friendship.
A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.
Depending upon my activities, I sleep between five and ten hours every night. I sleep in an extra-wide single bed, and I use only one heavy down comforter over me, summer or winter. I have never been able to wear pajamas or creepy nightgowns; they disturb my sleep.
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.
I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that's not easy.
I don't know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people can't stand to be invited someplace that isn't full of other important people. They don't mind a few unfamous people being present because they make good listeners.
I'm looking forward to becoming a marvelous - excuse the word marvelous - character actress. like Marie Dressler, like Will Rogers.
Someday I want to have children and give them all the love I never had.
For a long time I was scared I'd find out I was like my mother.
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.
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.
I read poetry to save time.
The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.
I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity, and that includes all kinds of parts.
It's nice to be included in people's fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.
I like to feel blonde all over.
In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo.
I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.
