Nicola Palumbo Quotes in We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974)

Nicola Palumbo: [defending Bicycle Thieves] Mr. Superintendent, the film we saw tonight was... stupendous! Let me talk, let me talk. Through this garbage and this crap, yes sir, we recognise the true enemies of the proletariat: namely, the false defenders of grace, of poetry, of beauty and all the other hypocritical values of your bourgeois culture.

Nicola Palumbo: We thought we'd change the world, instead the world has changed us.

Gianni Perego: Our generation is really disgusting.

Antonio: Why?

Gianni Perego: What? Well, look at Nicola, for example.

Antonio: What did Nicola do?

Gianni Perego: Yeah, what did Nicola do? He abandoned his family, his career, and to top it all off he ended scratching out movie reviews signing them "Vice".

Antonio: Oh, he's vice? Well then, you write for a lot of newspapers.

Gianni Perego: And all of this for what? For a brighter future.

Antonio: And so?

Gianni Perego: The future passed us by without us even realizing it.

Nicola Palumbo: What? Who says? Throwing away your life means to make the best use of it. Or do you like this one better? Living as you please is cheap because you pay for it with something that doesn't exist: happiness.