I think they wanted things to come easy for them. They didn’t want to work for a transformative experience. They didn’t want to help other people achieve a transformative experience. I find them all very selfish.

I still have trouble figuring out how a person crosses a line in their own mind, to be willing to hurt another person to get what they want. I think once you’ve crossed that line, I think it’s a dangerous line to cross.

It makes me wonder if they really know why they did it.

-Betty Jean Gouch

American Animals is a 2018 movie based on the true story of four young men who attempt to execute an audacious (and ill executed) art heist by stealing 2 rare Audubon books from a nearby library’s special collections. Struggling to find meaning in their dull lives, they formulate a daring plan for the robbery only to watch their mistakes and reality catch up with them.

The quote comes one of the real life office workers who encountered them when they tried to steal the books. Of all the characters, I think she grasps the humanity of the situation the best.