The most authentic, documented quotes from Marilyn Monroe — what she actually said about love, beauty, intelligence, loneliness, and life.
"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."— Marilyn Monroe, in conversation with W.J. Weatherby, 1960
"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."— Marilyn Monroe, My Story (unfinished autobiography)
"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."— widely attributed to Marilyn Monroe
"I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I've made. 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 yourself."— Marilyn Monroe
"I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful."— Marilyn Monroe
"I want to be an artist, not an erotic freak. I don't want to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrodisiac."— Marilyn Monroe, in negotiations with 20th Century Fox
"Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection."— Marilyn Monroe
"I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in private."— Marilyn Monroe
"The trouble with censors is they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn't any."— 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
"Dogs never bite me. Just humans."— Marilyn Monroe
"I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human."— Marilyn Monroe
"A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left."— widely attributed
"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."— widely attributed, likely paraphrase of documented statements
"I knew something was wrong. I didn't know what it was called. But I knew I was supposed to pretend it hadn't happened."— on childhood abuse, in conversation with Arthur Miller
"I was never used to being happy, so that wasn't something I ever took for granted."— in conversation with W.J. Weatherby