I don’t understand why people aren’t a little more generous with each other.

Monroe is discussing the hostility that accompanies celebrity. She contrasts an insult made to her face with one delivered through newspapers to reach a much larger audience, then attributes some of this behavior to envy within the film business.

She wishes people would treat one another with more kindness instead of using someone else as a target for publicity.

The sentence is not financial advice about giving money: generosity here means consideration toward other people, particularly when speaking about them publicly.

Kindness, Compassion, Society, Morality, Emotions

• Look at you comforting others with the words you wish someone had said to you. (not found) Fyodor Dostoevsky
• But when you’re famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way.
• A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• It’s nice to be included in people’s fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.
• Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid. (not found) Fyodor Dostoevsky

• themarilynmonroecollection.com/collection/marilyn-monroe-letter-from-richard-meryman

Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe interviewed by Richard Meryman, LIFE (1962), authorized edited reprint in The Guardian, Great interviews of the 20th century (September 2007). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/why-arent-people-more-generous-with-each-other/ (29 October 2026).

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