"By 1965 there'll be total depravity. How squalid everything will be."
Travestito's words are some of the most important words in the film. At its core, La Dolce Vita is a film about the degradation of society and government as a result of the loss of morality. Travestito argues—and laments—that society and its morality are degrading at a very fast rate. And by 1965 (five years after the release of the film), society will be totally and completely depraved.
"I like lots of things. But there are three things I like most: love, love, and love."
This quote gets to the core of who Sylvia is as a character. She is a very wealthy woman who enjoys many things in her life (and has expensive tastes). More than anything, though, she likes—and deeply desires—to have love in life. She is engaged to Robert, a man to who she appears to be indifferent. She likes him, but she doesn't appear to love him. That's why, when she meets Marcello Rubini, she thinks that she has found something special—love—with the tabloid journalist. And she pursues what she thinks is love with Marcello with the same feverish intensity that she works on her career.
"You are everything... everything! You are the first woman on the first day of creation. You are mother, sister, lover, friend, angel, devil, earth, home."
As a character, Marcello Rubini is quick to fall in love. And when he falls in love, he showers the person with whom he falls in love with compliments live the above quote. For the short time he and his new lover are together, this quote encapsulates how he feels about them: he loves them like nothing else that has walked the Earth.
