Marilyn Monroe
Quotes & Wisdom
Marilyn Monroe remains Hollywood's most enduring icon, a symbol whose meaning shifts with each generation that rediscovers her. The breathy voice, the platinum hair, the vulnerability beneath the glamour - these made her the twentieth century's most photographed woman. Yet the studio-manufactured sex symbol was also a shrewd businesswoman who formed her own production company, a serious student of acting who studied with Lee Strasberg, and a troubled soul whose private struggles shadowed her public radiance. Her early death at thirty-six transformed her from movie star into myth, the blonde bombshell who was also, somehow, everybody's wounded friend.
Context & Background
Norma Jeane Mortenson was born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California, to Gladys Pearl Baker, a film-cutter at RKO studios whose mental illness would shadow her daughter's life. Norma Jeane never knew her father with certainty; her birth certificate listed a man who denied paternity. This foundational abandonment would echo through everything that followed.
Gladys's psychological breakdowns led to Norma Jeane spending most of her childhood in foster homes and orphanages. She later claimed she was sexually abused; she certainly experienced the instability and emotional deprivation that mark institutional childhoods. At sixteen, she married a neighbor, James Dougherty, primarily to escape the foster system. When he shipped out with the Merchant Marine during World War II, she began working in a factory - where an Army photographer discovered her photogenic potential.
Hollywood in the late 1940s was still the factory system of the studio era. Young women with the right look were signed, renamed, trained, and promoted according to formulas that reduced individuality to marketable types. Norma Jeane became Marilyn Monroe in 1946 - a name combining the actress Marilyn Miller with her grandmother's surname. She spent years as a contract player, bit parts and cheesecake photos, before breakthrough roles in "The Asphalt Jungle" and "All About Eve" (both 1950) revealed something audiences wanted more of.
The persona that emerged in the early 1950s seemed almost too perfect for the era's fantasies. Monroe played the "dumb blonde" with a knowing wink that suggested depths beneath the breathy surface. "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) let her sing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" with ironic self-awareness. "The Seven Year Itch" (1955) gave the world the image of her white dress billowing over a subway grate - perhaps the most famous photograph of the twentieth century.
Yet Monroe chafed against typecasting. In 1954, she left Hollywood for New York, studying at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg, immersing herself in Method acting. She formed Marilyn Monroe Productions, becoming one of the first women to run her own production company, and negotiated a groundbreaking contract with Fox that gave her director approval and a share of profits.
"Bus Stop" (1956) and "Some Like It Hot" (1959) demonstrated range that surprised critics. Her comedy timing was impeccable; her dramatic moments revealed genuine emotional depth. Directors found her difficult - chronically late, needing dozens of takes - but the results on screen were often magical. She projected vulnerability that audiences felt protective toward, sexuality that seemed innocent rather than predatory.
Monroe's marriages mapped her aspirations and insecurities. Joe DiMaggio, the baseball hero, represented American masculine success; their 1954 marriage lasted nine months, destroyed partly by his jealousy over her public sexuality. Arthur Miller, the cerebral playwright, represented intellectual respectability; their 1956-1961 marriage collapsed under the weight of her psychological needs and his creative disappointments.
Her relationship with President John F. Kennedy - and perhaps his brother Robert - has become the stuff of endless speculation. She sang "Happy Birthday" to JFK at Madison Square Garden in 1962, weeks before her death, in a dress so tight she had to be sewn into it. The performance was simultaneously seductive and somehow sad.
Monroe's struggles with mental health, addiction to barbiturates and amphetamines, chronic insomnia, and repeated miscarriages created a personal life of terrible pain beneath the public sparkle. She saw psychiatrists constantly; she was hospitalized more than once. The industries that profited from her image offered little genuine support.
Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood home on August 5, 1962, from acute barbiturate poisoning. The coroner ruled it probable suicide. She was thirty-six years old, her last completed film "The Misfits" (1961) having been written by Miller as their marriage collapsed.
Conspiracy theories proliferated immediately and have never stopped. The Kennedy connections, the timing, alleged inconsistencies in the investigation - all fuel speculation that she was murdered or that her suicide was somehow orchestrated. No compelling evidence supports these theories, but they persist because her death seems too cruel to be merely accidental or self-inflicted.
The more interesting question is what her death revealed about the culture that created and consumed her. Hollywood's treatment of actresses, America's conflicted attitudes toward female sexuality, the costs of fame without genuine support systems - Monroe's tragedy illuminated systemic problems that outlived her.
Monroe was an avid reader, her library including Dostoyevsky, Joyce, and Hemingway. Photographs of her with books were initially staged for publicity but reflected genuine intellectual hunger. She wrote poetry, studied history, and longed to play serious dramatic roles.
Her wit was sharper than the dumb blonde persona suggested. When asked what she wore to bed, she replied "Chanel No. 5." When asked what she had on in a nude calendar photo, she said "The radio." These quips combined sexual frankness with comic timing in ways that still feel contemporary.
She was genuinely kind to ordinary people - fans, crew members, waitresses - in ways that colleagues confirmed. The desperate need for love that made her exhausting to intimates made her generous to strangers. Multiple accounts describe her noticing and befriending the overlooked.
Her influence on subsequent performers is incalculable. Madonna built a career partly on Monroe references. Contemporary discussions of the male gaze, female agency, and the costs of objectification inevitably circle back to her image. She has become not merely a historical figure but a symbol through which each era works out its own anxieties about women, beauty, fame, and tragedy.
Marilyn Monroe Quotes
“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”
I am invariably late for appointments - sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.
I wanted to ask a thousand questions, but there was no one to ask. Besides I knew that people only told lies to children-lies about everything from soup to Santa Claus.
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.
In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hair-do. 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 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.
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.
This life is what you make it. Not matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, somg go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them.
I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
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.
I don't forgive people because I'm weak, I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes.
I don't mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. 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.
Friendship is the bestiest thing that comes to life . Friends will always be there for you don't worry about the fakes worry about the people who had your back from the start and never treated you wrong always remember they are your real friends don't never take them as granted because one day your going to lose a good friend by the way your action's are when you see a good friend stick to that person .
Hollywood is 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.
How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.
Just because you fall once, doesn't mean you're fall at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always trust yourself, because if you don't then who will??
I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.
I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night — there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.
Die Liebe und die Arbeit sind die beiden einzigen wahren Dinge in unserem Leben. Sie gehören zusammen, sonst ist es schief. Die Arbeit ist selbst eine Form der Liebe.
A girl doesn't need anyone who doesn't need her
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.
A wise girl knows her limits, a smart girl knows that she has none.
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left.
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.
If you're gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.
It's far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.
When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I'm already better than them.
We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.
She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important—you know
Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.
I don't mind living in a man's world, as long as I can be a woman in it.
Who said nights were for sleep?
All we demanded was our right to twinkle.
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.
Dogs never bite me. Just humans.
If I'd observed all the rules I'd never have got anywhere.
Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.
Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.
Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together
I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot!
Suicide, is a persons privilege. I don't believe it's a sin or a crime it's your right if you do. Though it doesn't get you anywhere.
There's only one sort of natural blonde on earth - albinos.
I would have told her then she was the only thing that I could
It’s better for the whole world to know you, even as a sex star, than never to be known at all.
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius
They will only care when you're gone.
A friend tells you what you want to hear; a best friend tells you the truth.
I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same.
I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one.
Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature.
You never know what life is like, until you have lived it.
Your clothes should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to show you're a lady
A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.
What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course
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?
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.
Looking back, I guess I used to play-act all the time. For one thing, it meant I could live in a more interesting world than the one around me.
When you're young and healthy you can plan on Monday to commit suicide, and by Wednesday you're laughing again.
It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
Too often they don't realize what they have until it's gone.
I love to do the things the censors won't pass.
I have too many fantasies to be a housewife.... I guess I am a fantasy.
I've often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.
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.
That's the way you feel when you're beaten inside. You don't feel angry at those who've beaten you. You just feel ashamed.
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.
So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
I don’t stop when I’m tired. I only stop when I’m done ...
Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.
The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn't any.
Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them.
I restore myself when I'm alone.
I just want to be wonderful.
It's all make believe, isn't it?
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.
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.
Always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, Sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
Trying to build myself up with the fact that I have done things right that were even good and have had moments that were excellent but the bad is heavier to carry around and feel have no confidence.
All little girls should be told they are pretty, even if they aren't.
It's not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.
The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.
You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.
But chiefly, no lies! No lies about there being a Santa Claus or about the world being full of noble and honorable people all eager to help each other and do good to each other. I'll tell her there are honor and goodness in the world, the same as there are diamonds and radium.
We are all born sexual creatures,thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift.
Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.
The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.
I learned to walk as a baby and I haven't had a lesson since.
A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night
I read poetry to save time.
Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything.
I've been on a calendar, but never on time.
I live to suceed, not to please you or anyone else.
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.
Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.
“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.”
“To all the girls that think you’re ugly because you’re not a size 0, you’re the beautiful one. It’s society who’s ugly.”