Great Throughts Treasury

"I don?t understand why people aren?t a little more generous with each other."

"I don?t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful."

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

"I don't digest things with my mind."

"I don't forgive people because I'm weak. I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes."

"I don't know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people can't stand to be invited someplace that isn't full of other important people. They don't mind a few unfamous people being present because they make good listeners."

"I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot."

"I don't look at myself as a commodity, but I'm sure a lot of people have."

"I don't mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. 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 don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it."

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

"I don't want everybody to see exactly where I live, what my sofa or my fireplace looks like."

"I don't want to make money. I just want to be wonderful."

"I enjoy acting when you really hit it right."

"I finally made up my mind I wanted to be an actress and I was not going to let my lack of confidence ruin my chances."

"I guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone's wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really."

"I had to use my wits or else I?d have been sunk ? and nothing?s going to sink me. Everyone was always pulling at me, tugging at me, as if they wanted a piece of me. It was always, do this, do that, and not just on the job but off, too. God, I?ve tried to stay intact, whole."

"I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone?s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really."

"I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen."

"I have been told my eating habits are absolutely bizarre. But I don't think so."

"I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent."

"I have noticed ... that men usually leave married women alone, and are inclined to treat all wives with respect. This is no great credit to married women. Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them."

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

"I just got to feel that whoever I marry has some real regard for me."

"I just want to be wonderful."

"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."

"I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!"

"I lay in bed at night crying to myself. The only one who loved me and watched over me was someone I couldn't see or hear or touch."

"I learned also that the best way to keep out of trouble was by never complaining or asking for anything."

"I learned to walk as a baby and I haven?t had a lesson since."

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

"I like to feel blonde all over."

"I live to succeed, not to please you 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."

"I love to do the things the censors won?t pass."

"I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work."

"I never wanted to be Marilyn - it just happened. Marilyn's like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane."

"I often wake up in the night, and I like to have something to think about."

"I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll be a great actress."

"I read poetry to save time."

"I remember when I was in high school I didn't have a new dress for each special occasion. The girls would bring the fact to my attention, not always too delicately. The boys, however, never bothered with the subject. They were my friends, not because of the size of my wardrobe but because they liked me."

"I restore myself when I?m alone."

"I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public; talent in privacy."

"I said pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together."

"I think I have always had a little humor."

"I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly."

"I think that sexuality is only attractive when it's natural and spontaneous."

"I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated. ... Goethe said, "Talent is developed in privacy," you know? And it's really true. ... Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever."

"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 where there are scenes with a lot of responsibility, and I'll wish, 'Gee, if only I had been a cleaning woman.'"

"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."