Famous Lives, Forgotten Lines | Marilyn Monroe in Her Own Words

Before she was the ultimate blond bombshell actress of the 50s and 60s, the pop culture icon who advanced society’s views on sexuality and womanhood, and the tabloid princess whose life and death stirred up rumors and conspiracies, Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jean Mortenson. Norma was a lonely orphan stricken by the absence of love and belonging, championing her to become a star who chased the thrill of feeling recognized and desired. 

In My Story, the autobiography she never finished before her tragic passing, Marilyn takes readers through her childhood and adolescence as an abandoned orphan, her unsteady rise as the most famous actress in the film industry, and her glamorous public and private life. The honesty with which Marilyn discloses her feelings is both endearing and haunting. With aspirations to become a beloved actress, Norma became Marilyn to escape the dreadful loneliness that lingered throughout her impoverished youth; however, this feeling only grew stronger as her fame reached insurmountable heights. 

Although she is often recognized for her beauty and the angelic spark and energy that engulfed her, Marilyn was a layered and complex character as multifaceted as any of the roles she played. In a time where misogyny and corruption were as much a staple of the film industry as the iconic Hollywood sign, Marilyn was an innovative talent who was purposefully limited to her charming and beguiling appearance. She began writing her own story to showcase that her brilliance expanded beyond her appearance and took root in her intelligence

The poignant quotes below were written by Marilyn Monroe before her passing but were not published until a decade later. Although Marilyn’s devastating death has been highly speculated for over half a century, readers see through her own words that beneath Marilyn’s glamorous and romanticized public life was an intuitive and misunderstood woman. 

“Nearly everybody I knew talked to me about God. They always warned me not to offend Him. But when Grace talked about God, she touched my cheek and said that He loved me and watched over me. Remembering what Grace had said 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.”

“My impulse to appear naked and my dreams about it had no shame or sense of sin in them. Dreaming of people looking at me made me feel less lonely. I think I wanted them to see me naked because I was ashamed of the clothes I wore—the never changing faded blue dress of poverty. Naked, I was like other girls and not someone in an orphan’s uniform.”

“I was full of a strange feeling, as if I were two people. One of them was Norma Jean from the orphanage who belonged to nobody. The other was someone whose name I didn’t know. But I knew where she belonged. She belonged to the ocean and the sky and the whole world.”

 “In Hollywood a girl’s virtue is much less important than her hair-do. 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 a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul.” 

“A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.”
“I used to say to myself, what the devil have you got to be proud about, Marilyn Monroe? And I’d answer, ‘Everything, everything.’ And I’d walk slowly and turn my head slowly as if I were a queen.”