16 Marilyn Monroe Quotes on Identity

Marilyn Monroe quotes on identity

1. It's not true I had nothing on. I had the radio on.

6. Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, 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.

7. Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.

11. That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of... I just hate to be a thing.

14. First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.

18. My work is the only ground I've ever had to stand on. I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation - but I'm working on the foundation.

31. I always felt I was nobody and the only way for me to be somebody was to be... well, somebody else.

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

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

36. 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.

41. I want to be an artist not an erotic freak. I don't want to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrodisiac.

42. I want to grow old without face-lifts ... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made. Sometimes, I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know yourself.

47. 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.

48. If I am a star the people made me a star.

62. 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.

67. 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.