The Best Marilyn Monroe Quotes That Showed the Real Woman (Plus the Most Famous One She never Said)

Marilyn Monroe didn’t exactly embrace her image as a dumb blonde. Notably, she once quipped, “He [Arthur Miller] wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.”

Indeed. Check out Marilyn Monroe’s reading library and you quickly realize she was a smart woman who valued learning and literature. I mean, her favorite book was Ulysses which is quite a formidable book, even for the literary type.

No wonder she had some savvy life insights to offer. Here are a few of the best Marilyn Monroe quotes that she said, as well as a couple she is famous for but probably never said.

A Few Marilyn Monroe Quotes That Will Change The Way You See the Classic Actress

Marilyn Monroe Quotes on Beauty

“I feel that 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. I think that sexuality is only attractive when it's natural and spontaneous.” Marilyn said this in an interview with Life Magazine.

The following anecdote details perhaps one of the biggest turning points in Marilyn Monroe’s career. I first learned about it in the fantastic book, The Art of Seduction. She recalls her impromptu audition for the Marx Bros. “They told me I wouldn’t have any lines to speak. All the talking I would have to do was with my body… Groucho asked me if I could walk in a way to make smoke come out of his head. I told him I could. I walked across the room and when I turned around there was smoke coming out of Groucho’s head!”

“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.” I haven’t been able to find a source for this, but she stated many similar things so I am including it here.

Here’s an interesting one. As you may know, Marilyn famously posed nude from desperation. She was nearly broke and, as she put it, "“Fifty dollars in 1948 was a lot of money.” The photo would go on to become Hugh Hefner’s most famous Playboy cover of all time. Marilyn later quipped, “I never even received a thank-you from all those who made millions off a nude Marilyn photograph.”

Marilyn Monore Quotes About Life and love

“It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone – so far.”

"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."

“Dogs never bite me. Just humans.” She said this in an interview with Truman Capote. I am sure he appreciated the witticism.

In an interview with Life magazine, she waxed philosophical about fame. “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.”

"Fear is stupid. So are regrets." This is the most often quoted snippet from Marilyn Monroe’s interview for W.J Wetherby in 1960. The full quote says, “We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets."

“I’ve been asked, ‘Do you mind living in a man’s world?’ I always answer, ‘Not as long as I can be a woman in it’.”

“I’m thirty-six years old. I’m just getting started!”

Fake Marilyn Monroe Quotes

Some of Marilyn Monroe’s most famous quotes weren’t said by her at all! Here are a few of the most famous not-Marilyn Monroe sayings….

“Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.” - Actually, Bette Midler said this.

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” I can find zero original sources for this Marilyn Monroe quote, though I love the sentiment all the same!

It is, however, the perfect segue into something Marilyn Monroe actually DID say, and most of us can agree with:

“It’s all make-believe, isn’t it?”

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Sources: Vanity Fair, Marilyn, Her Life In Her Own Words, Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters, Will Acting Spoil Marilyn Monroe? by Pete Martin

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