“All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. ...” — Thomas Hobbes Quote

“All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called 'Facts'. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.”

“Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another.”

“I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.”

“There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense.”

“The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.”

“Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.”

“I worry about the very pernicious way we elevate and separate ourselves from other beasts, the way we rationalize our comfort and ease, our worship of the self, as healthy. It's enticing, but with a terrible taint of evil.”

“I knew Berlin would have to become a kind of character in my new book, 'In the Garden of Beasts'. I had felt likewise about Chicago when I wrote 'The Devil in the White City' and Galveston with 'Isaac's Storm'.”

“For 'Beasts,' I really wanted my character to be this sort of mushy, muscleless Muppet.”

“For me, the biggest thing was writing memorable themes for the new characters so that ultimately people would have the same identification with 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' as they do with the Harry Potter films.”

“I like writing about women, weak and strong, pathetic and heroic. I like writing about men, ditto. And all the variants of men and women, beasts and demons.”

“They're odd beasts, musicals, but what I like about them is the way they allow windows into people's lives. When people sing, you get an opportunity to see a vulnerability, a glimpse of a life in a messed-up head.”