“It was easy to be intimidated by Marilyn, and I was. She was so incredibly beautiful. Sensual. Sweet. But that intimidation quickly disappeared because she was so committed and so determined to improve herself. She listened like no one else, and she worked herself to a breaking point. I told her to relax, to take it slow, but she couldn’t: she wanted to be taken seriously; she wanted to do well. I complain about my upbringing, my sad mother, my sad aunts, the lack of men, and the constant gridlock around me, but I had love, food, space, and silence to dream. Marilyn didn’t have that. She once told me she just wanted her own room, her own bed, and a door she could close. And grass. Grass to run on. Trees to hug and flowers to pick.” She was a girl who had nothing, except the great jewel that she was, and anyone could hold it and stroke it, and then put it back when they were done. She was happiest—for a while—when she married Arthur [Miller], and there was a house in the country, trees, fruit, flowers—and silence and doors."
— Maureen Stapleton on Marilyn Monroe / Interview with James Grissom / 1991 / Photograph of Marilyn Monroe by Sam Shaw, 1957.
“It was easy to be intimidated by Marilyn, and I was. She was so incredibly beautiful. Sensual. Sweet. But that intimidation quickly disappeared because she was so committed and so determined to improve herself. She listened like no one else, and she worked herself to a breaking point. I told her to relax, to take it slow, but she couldn’t: she wanted to be taken seriously; she wanted to do well. I complain about my upbringing, my sad mother, my sad aunts, the lack of men, and the constant gridlock around me, but I had love, food, space, and silence to dream. Marilyn didn’t have that. She once told me she just wanted her own room, her own bed, and a door she could close. And grass. Grass to run on. Trees to hug and flowers to pick.” She was a girl who had nothing, except the great jewel that she was, and anyone could hold it and stroke it, and then put it back when they were done. She was happiest—for a while—when she married Arthur [Miller], and there was a house in the country, trees, fruit, flowers—and silence and doors."
— Maureen Stapleton on Marilyn Monroe / Interview with James Grissom / 1991 / Photograph of Marilyn Monroe by Sam Shaw, 1957.
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