If you'll indulge me, I saw this the other day, and wow...this is totally the story of Me, as played out by Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson.
(ELEMENTARY on CBS)
Holmes: You have a point. There is unquestionably a certain social utility to being polite. To maintaining an awareness of other people's sensitivities. To exhibiting all the traits that might commonly be grouped under the heading nice.
Watson: I think you'll be surprised how easy it is to earn that designation.
Holmes: No. I am not a nice man. It's important that you understand that. It's going to save you a great deal of time and effort. There is not a warmer, kinder me waiting to be coaxed out into the light. I am acerbic. I can be cruel. It's who I am. Right to the bottom. I'm neither proud of this, nor ashamed of it. It simply is. And in my work, my nature has been an advantage far more often than it has been a hindrance. I'm not gonna change.
Watson: You're not the same person I met a year and a half ago. You're--
Holmes: Good to you? Yeah. For the most part. I consider you to be... exceptional. So I make an exceptional effort to accommodate you. But you must accept that, for as long as you choose to be in my life, there will occasionally be fallout from my behavior. That must be a part of our understanding.
Watson: No one can accept something like that forever.
Holmes: To thine own self, Watson.