Can you be anything but a beast to be a human?

We're not all at the same level of beastliness, but the human condition is, to my mind, a beastly one; emphasizing that for the sake of your work often emphasizes aspects of such in life.

That said, I strive for Flaubert's maxim--live the orderly life of a bourgeois, that you will remain violent and original in your art (paraphrased some).