J. Randy Taraborrelli > Quotes

“He understands that he sees things differently from the way everyone else does, but he can't put his finger on why. He's not like other people. No one understands him. So he goes through his whole life with this, uh..." he paused, "confusion." Michael looked off into the distance, now seeming lost in his thought process. "Everybody thinks he's very special, but, really, he's very sad. He's so, so sad.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009

“He is not my focus," Diana told writer Rodney Tyler of Arne. "He’s my husband, my companion, my lover, my confidant. But not my focus. I wasn’t lost, then found by Arne. I was single and met a wonderful man and we enjoyed each other’s company and enjoyed our times together. So it was not lost and found. That’s crap. I have never been lost.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Diana Ross: An Unauthorized Biography

“Yes, there was something special about me, and I knew what it was. I was the kind of girl they found dead in a hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand. But things weren’t entirely black—not yet. When you’re young and healthy you can plan on Monday to commit suicide, and by Tuesday you’re laughing again.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

“Her makeup artist, Allan Snyder, recalled applying her makeup in the morning while she was still flat on her back in bed. “There was no other way,” he said. “It would take her so long to get up in the morning, we had to start with the makeup before she was out of bed.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

“She had told Kazan that she was bored with the roles she was playing because so many of them had been basically the same kind of empty-headed characterization. She wanted nothing ore than to challenge herself with more complex parts--and also wanted others to think of her as being more than a caricature.
...
Anytime she had an opportunity to broaden her mind, she wanted to take advantage of it.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

“Today...major actors and actresses develop their own projects or, at the very least, cherry-pick their roles carefully to suit not only their tastes but also whatever image they have cultivated to present to their public. Most major stars have their own production companies through which such projects are developed and even financed. While the biggest male stars of that time did in fact have their own production companies--Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, and Burt Lancaster, to name a few--and thus exerted creative and financial control over their careers, that was not the case with female stars. But Marilyn Monroe was about to change that.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

“While her moment-to-moment experiences may have been torturous, Gladys was still able to complete tasks. For instance, she could show up for work on time, go grocery shopping, and remember to water the plants. Therefore, if someone’s life could be judged solely by her daily agenda, Gladys Baker would have appeared quite unspectacular. Yet it was how she experienced and reacted to the string of events that made her different.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

“For instance, Marilyn once gave him a gold medal as a gift that she’d had inscribed with a quote from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “True love is visible not to the eyes, but to the heart, for eyes may be deceived.” He took one look at it and said, “What the hell does this mean?”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

“Marilyn Monroe was so much more than just a famous movie star. She was a vulnerable soul, a generous spirit, and a brave soldier in a devastating battle with her own mind. Attempting to explain her difficult journey is the challenge I set for myself with this book. At the heart of the story, I discovered a very different kind of Marilyn, a woman far more complex and serious—and maybe even tragic—than the one I thought I knew.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

“Meanwhile, Artemis continued her matchmaking campaign. According to sources very close to the Onassis family, she brought to her brother’s attention the possibility that if Bobby Kennedy ever became president, “he’ll put the horns on you,” meaning he would be out to get him. This had already occurred to him. As president, Bobby would come after Onassis with every tool of the United States government that was available to him, and it would likely result in indictments. But if he was Jackie’s husband? Bobby would probably back off in deference to her. Also, Artemis knew that her brother had an idea of building a superport in New Hampshire. It had been on his mind for some time. With his bad reputation in the States, there was no way that could ever happen. But as Jackie’s husband? Maybe.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“at this time, in anticipation of her eightieth birthday. “Either you survive or you succumb. If you survive, you profit by the experience. You understand the tragedies of other people’s lives. You’re more sympathetic and you’re a broader person.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“One must not dwell only on the tragedies that life holds for us all,”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John Kennedy”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“All that remained was to hear the final death knell. It came in 1974 in the form of a devastating autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis. It’s so rare an illness, when Ari received the diagnosis, he viewed it as punishment from the gods for his hubris, boastfulness, and extravagant lifestyle. “How can I lose?” he’d often asked when he was in good health. “The rules don’t even apply to me.” Now, he felt he was paying the price for his massive success by losing everything—his son, his money, even his health. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes open, the neuromuscular disorder weakening his face so much. It seemed like a cruel, horrible way to go out. “I may as well be dead now,” he told Jackie. “I can’t live like this.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“and turned to face her friend. “Get”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Kennedy Heirs: John, Caroline, and the New Generation - A Legacy of Tragedy and Triumph

“first”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Sinatra: Behind the Legend

“Hugh opined that the quickest way”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Holding in all that grief the way Kennedys hold in grief is worse than just letting it out,” Jackie once said.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“To live in prison is to live without mirrors.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“passages aloud from some of Jackie’s favorite poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“She was Jackie Kennedy, the most famous woman in the world,” noted Stanley Levin, “and that was worth all the money in the world to a man like Aristotle Onassis. He felt she’d legitimize him in the eyes of the world. I also believe that, deep down, he loved her in his own way and wanted to help her. His heart went out to her. She had that effect on people. He had Maria Callas on the side. Jackie accepted it. She knew the terms of their arrangement from the very beginning.” In years to come, there would be many published accounts about the Onassises’ sex life, which was always reported as being very robust. Onassis often bragged about their lovemaking, but it was all for show to boost his image. Some of his employees from that time now admit he actually paid them to spread these sorts of rumors in the tabloids.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Kennedy had brought him into the administration to work under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara because he worried the latter was inexperienced in the political machinations of Washington. Historians have said that if not for those two men, things might have turned out differently in 1962. Gilpatric and McNamara had argued vociferously against escalating the conflict by bombing Cuba, which was the route National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy wanted to take. He and McNamara proposed the blockade as a strong response solution, which turned out to be the right decision.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Janet was deathly afraid of her daughters being kidnapped and murdered the same way as aviator Charles Lindbergh’s twenty-month-old son had been five years earlier. The media called it the “Crime of the Century,” and it made an indelible impression on Janet as it did parents across the country. It didn’t matter if a mother was famous or not, the idea that her child could be kidnapped struck fear in the hearts of many American women, including Janet,”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Anyone who knew Rose also understood that also playing into her decision was how much money the Kennedys would save if Jackie married well. She wouldn’t need their measly two hundred thousand dollars, anymore, and I’m sure that didn’t escape Rose. The diamond bracelet Onassis gave Rose toward the end of the visit didn’t hurt.” “Jackie deserved a full life, a happy future,” Rose would later write. “Jack had been gone five years, thus she had plenty of time to think things over. She was not a person who would jump rashly. I decided to put my doubts aside and give her all the emotional support I could in what I realized was bound to be a time of stress for her in the weeks and months ahead.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Jack and Bobby had always had such strong animus for Onassis, and it had been less than two months since Bobby’s death. Maybe it was too soon? “My taking Aristo there is loaded with symbolism,” was how Jackie put it to Roswell Gilpatric. “I’m not sure how I’ll react to it, it’s so emotional for me. It’s facing the future. It’s letting go of the past.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Dupree through”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill

“For all those who have faced the darkest trauma of their lives and struggled to move through, or move on, and for the peace that may come one day after the crucible, in the light of a path toward acceptance.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Find your own particular talent; Be big; Be honest; Live with enthusiasm; Don’t let your possessions possess you; Don’t worry about your problems; Look up to people when you can—down to no one; Don’t cling to the past; Assume your full share of responsibility in the world and, finally, Pray consistently and constantly.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty

“AT is the conviction that we need external validation to fill a hole deep inside and that in the event that our own impossible demands are not met, we must drink to fill the hole,”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill

“I have to tell you one thing about Diana Ross—I say it in her defense all the time—when she was poor, living in the projects, she was just as snotty as she is now, so her fame didn’t make her snotty.”
― J. Randy Taraborelli, Diana Ross:: A Biography