I. Frost's Selected Quotations

Everything at Amazon by and about: Marilyn Monroe

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

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

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

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

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

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

"No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they are pretty, even if they aren't." Marilyn Monroe

"I'm going to be a great movie star some day." Marilyn Monroe

"I learned to walk as a baby and I haven't had a lesson since." 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." Marilyn Monroe

"Gee, I never thought I had an effect on people until I was in Korea." Marilyn Monroe

"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." Marilyn Monroe

"Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature." Marilyn Monroe

"He [Arthur Miller] wouldn't have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde." Marilyn Monroe

"I don't want to play sex roles any more. I'm tired of being known as the girl with the shape." Marilyn Monroe

"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." Marilyn Monroe

"I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one." Marilyn Monroe

"It stirs up envy, fame does. People...feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you--and it won't hurt your feelings--like it's happening to your clothing." Marilyn Monroe

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. Marilyn Monroe

My marriage brought me neither happiness nor pain. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to say. Marilyn Monroe

To me, she was just that red-haired woman. Marilyn Monroe on her mother

You sit alone. It's night outside. Automobiles roll down Sunset Boulevard like an endless string of beetles. Their rubber tires make a purring high-class noise. You're hungry, and you say, 'It's not good for my waistline to eat.' There's nothing finer than a washboard belly. Marilyn Monroe

When you're a failure in Hollywood, that's like starving to death outside a banquet hall, with smells of filet mignon driving you crazy . Marilyn Monroe

I was never used to being happy, so that wasn't something I ever took for granted. Marilyn Monroe

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. Marilyn Monroe

I strove to look like Betty Grable, but I thought Alice Faye had more class to her looks. Marilyn Monroe

I think cheesecake helps call attention to you. Then you can foIlow through and prove yourself. Marilyn Monroe

Mv first contract with 20th Century-Fox was like my first vaccination. It didn't take. Marilyn Monroe

QUESTIO)N: If 50 percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do? MM: Look, if 100 percent told me that, all 100 percent would be wrong. Marilyn Monroe

In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are. Marilyn Monroe

Wouldn't it be nice to be like men, just getting notches in your belt, having affairs with the most atttractive men . . . and not getting emotionally involved? Marilyn Monroe

You would think all other women kept their bodies in vaults. Marilyn Monroe

It isn't necessary to use your voice in any special way (to sound sexy). If you think something sexy the voice just naturally goes along. Marilyn Monroe

I've given pure sex appeal very little thought. If I had to think about it, I'm sure it would frighten me. Marilyn Monroe

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

'It's like salt on a steak. All you need is a little bit of it.' Marilyn Monroe on jealousy, 1952

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

A photographer once told me that my two best points are between my waist and my neck. Marilyn Monroe

I want to continue my growth in every way. Marilyn Monroe

I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that I was fooling somebody-I don't know who or what-maybe myself. I have feelings some days when there are scenes with a lot of responsiblity, and I'll wish, gee, if only I would have been a cleaning woman. Marilyn Monroe

Even though I was born there, I still can't think of one good thing to say about it. If I close my eyes, and picture LA, all I see is one big varicose vein. Marilyn Monroe

Everybody says I can't act. They said the same thing about Elizabeth Taylor. And they were wrong. She was great in A Place in the Sun. I'll never get the right part, anything I really want. My looks are against me. They're too specific. Marilyn Monroe

Dogs never bite me. Just humans. Marilyn Monroe

They've said I want to direct pictures. I couldn't direct traffic. Marilyn Monroe

I wanna guy I can look up to . . . I just gotta feel that whoever I marry has some real regard for me, aside from all that loving stuff. Marilyn Monroe

I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror. Marilyn Monroe

I don't consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people. Marilyn Monroe

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. Marilyn Monroe

A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night. Marilyn Monroe

I want him to direct me again. But he's doing the Lindbergh story next. And he won't let me play Lindbergh. Marilyn Monroe

What am I afraid of? Do I think I can't act? I know I can act, but I am afraid. I am afraid and I should not be and I must not be. Marilyn Monroe

The reality is very different - it's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far. Marilyn Monroe

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

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin? It seems to me it's time they stopped knocking their assets around. Marilyn Monroe being fired from Fox, 1962

I've never been in a Hollywood fight or feud. I have the most wonderful memory for forgetting things. Marilyn Monroe

I am trying to prove to myself that I am a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I am an actress. Marilyn Monroe

I always sleep with my mouth open. I know because it's open when I wake up. Marilyn Monroe

I never quite understood it - this sex symbol-I always thought symbols were those things you clash together! That's the trouble, a sex symbol is a thing. But if I'm going to be the symbol of something, I'd rather have it sex than some other things they've got symbols of! Marilyn Monroe

It's nice to be included in people's fantasies, but you also like to be accepted for your own sake. Marilyn Monroe Can you imagine me as first lady? Marilyn Monroe

How can I learn something about the most famous philosophers in a few hours? I'm going to a party tonight and I want to be able to hold my own. Marilyn Monroe

I have never been very good at being a member of any group - more than a group of two, that is. Marilyn Monroe

I never intentionally mean to hurt anyone, but you can't be too nice to people you work with, else they will trample you to death. Marilyn Monroe

I don't mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. But what goes with it can be a burden. We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift. Marilyn Monroe

Fame will go by and, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. Marilyn Monroe

I feel as though it's all happening to someone right next to me. I'm close, I can feel it, I can hear it, but it isn't really me. Marilyn Monroe on her fame, 1962

"I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made." Marilyn Monroe

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

"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." Marilyn Monroe

I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one. Marilyn Monroe

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

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? Marilyn Monroe

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. Marilyn Monroe

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

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

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

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

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