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

It's a terrible thing to be lonesome, especially in the middle of a crowd.

I am invariably late for appointments - sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.

At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.

Maybe I’ll never be able to do what I hope to, but at least I have hope.

There is a need for aloneness, which I don't think most people realise 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. But everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like sort of a chunk of you.