identity quotes

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

A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.

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 am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

I just dress like… I’m an old black man. Sorry! Like I’m an old Jewish black man. I just dress like it’s still the ’50s.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

You know, when you don’t go on TV and talk about how many women you sleep with, some people in Hollywood, that are supposedly ‚in the know,‘ start whispering that you’re gay. If I were gay, I wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it, but I’m not.

I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me, ‚black feminist‘ does not do that. I need a word that is organic, that really comes out of the culture, that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women. And it’s just… womanish.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.