Goodness! I never thought I had an effect on people, before I came to Corea

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.

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 experience, but that`s not where I live.

A career is born in public, talent in privacy.

The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn`t any.

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.

I want to be an artist... not an erotic freak. I don`t want to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrodisiacal.

I used to think as I looked at 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.`

I`m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.

If I had observed all the rules, I`d never have gotten anywhere.

It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, you know, of any kind of nature - and it won`t hurt your feelings.

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.

I`m a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they`ve made of me and that I`ve made of myself, as a sex symbol. Men expect so much, and I can`t live up to it.

I didn`t want to give up my career, and that`s what Joe wanted me to do most of all. - on why her marriage to Joe DiMaggio couldn`t work

My problem is that I drive myself... I`m trying to become an artist, and to be true, and sometimes I feel I`m on the verge of craziness, I`m just trying to get the truest part of myself out, and it`s very hard. There are times when I think, `All I have to be is true`. But sometimes it doesn`t come out so easily. I always have this secret feeling that I`m really a fake or something, a phony.

I`ve never dropped anyone I believed in.

I used to say to myself, `What the devil have you got to be proud about, Marilyn Monroe?` And I`d answer, `Everything, everything.`

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.

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. Hollywood`s a place where they`ll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty.

I want to grow old without face-lifts... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face that I have made.

Joe hates crowds and glamour. - explaining why Joe DiMaggio didn`t come on one of her USO tours

Wouldn`t it be nice to be like men and get notches in your belt and sleep with most attractive men and not get emotionally involved?

Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has it`s compensations but it also has it`s drawbacks, and I`ve experienced them both.

My marriage didn`t make me sad, but it didn`t make me happy either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn`t because we were angry. We had nothing to say. I was dying of boredom. - on why she divorced James Dougherty

Talent is developed in privacy... but everybody is always tugging at you. They`d all like sort of a chunk at you. They`d kind of like to take pieces out of you.

You know, when you grow up you can get kind of sour, I mean, that`s the way it can go.

I don`t mind living in a man`s world as long as i can be a woman in it.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I never had belonged to anything or anyone else.

I love a natural look in pictures. I like people with a feeling one way or another - it shows an inner life. I like to see that there`s something going on inside them.

They were terribly strict. They didn`t mean any harm...it was their religion. They brought me up harshly. - on living with the Bolenders when she was a little girl

Jean Harlow was my idol. - on her favorite actress, the first platinum blonde

I was never used to being happy, so that wasn`t something I ever took for granted. I did sort of think, you know, marriage did that. You see, I was brought up differently from the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy - that`s it, successful, happy, and on time.

A sex-symbol becomes a thing, I just hate being 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.

I restore myself when I`m alone. A career is born in public -- talent in private.

The truth is 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. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them---and fooling them.

To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I`m working on the foundation.

My illusions didn`t have anything to do with being a fine actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!

I`ve never liked the name Marilyn. I`ve often wished that I had held out that day for Jean Monroe. But I guess it`s too late to do anything about it now.

The trouble with censors is they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn`t any.

If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.

The world around me then was kind of grim. I had to learn to pretend in order to - I don`t know - block the grimness. The whole world seemed sort of closed to me... [I felt] on the outside of everything, and all I could do was to dream up any kind of pretend game. - on drifting in and out of orphanages when she was little

Please don`t make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity.

A smart girl leaves before she is left.

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

(About Montgomery Clift): He`s the only person I know that is in worse shape than I am.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive intrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everyone jumped on his violin?

Goethe said, `Talent is developed in privacy, ` you know?And it`s really true. There is a need for aloneness which I don`t think most people realize for an actor. It`s almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you`ll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you`re acting.

I was surprised to be so crazy about Joe. I expected a flashy New York sports type, and instead I met this reserved guy who didn`t make a pass at me right away! He treated me like something special. Joe is a very decent man, and he makes other people feel decent too. - on meeting Joe DiMaggio for the first time

On stardom: "It scares me. All those people I don`t know, sometimes they`re so emotional. I mean, if they love you that much without knowing you, they can also hate you the same way."

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...

On posing nude for the calendar in 1949: "My sin has been no more than I have written, posing for the nude because I desperately needed fifty dollars to get my car out of hock."

Dogs never bite me. Just humans.

Grace McKee arranged the marriage for me, I never had a choice. There`s not much to say about it. They couldn`t support me, and they had to work out something. And so I got married. - on her early marriage to James Dougherty

A dollar for your thoughts...

Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.

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?

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.

On John F. Kennedy: "It would be so nice to have a president who looks so young and good-looking."

I want to be a big star more than anything. It`s something precious.

I`ve been on a calendar, but never on time.

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.

I`m not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.

It`s all make believe isn`t it

Thank you ever so

"I`m Not Interested in Money, I just want to be wonderful"

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

I`ve been on a calendar, but I`ve never been on time.

Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them

A career is wonderful, but you can`t curl up with it on a cold night.

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

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.

Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature

I don`t mind living in a man`s world as long as I can be a woman in it.

I want to grow old without facelifts... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I`ve made.

If you can make a girl laugh - you can make her do anything