What Makes Someone Successful

An excerpt from "House MD" (Season 1, Episode 9: DNR). John Henry Giles is a fictitious famed musician being treated by Dr. Greg House.

GILES
It’s over. I lost my air. The session the other night, with those kids? That was a test to see if I could still play. I can’t.

HOUSE
And that’s all you are? A musician?

GILES
I got one thing, same as you.

HOUSE
Really? Apparently, you know me better than I know you.

GILES
I know that limp. I know the empty ring finger. And that obsessive nature of yours, that’s a big secret. You don’t risk jail and your career just to save somebody who doesn’t want to be saved unless you got something, anything, one thing. The reason normal people got wives and kids and hobbies, whatever. That’s because they don’t got that one thing that hits them that hard and that true. I got music, you got this. The thing you think about all the time, the thing that keeps you south of normal. Yeah, makes us great, makes us the best. All we miss out on is everything else. No woman waiting at home after work with the drink and the kiss, that ain’t gonna happen for us.

HOUSE
That’s why God made microwaves.

GILES
Yeah, but when it’s over, it’s over.