Des­troy and be des­troy­ed by me

I want someone who is fier­ce and will love me until death and know that love is as strong as death, and be on my side for ever and ever. I want someone who will des­troy and be des­troy­ed by me. The­re are many forms of love and affec­tion, some peo­p­le can spend their who­le lives tog­e­ther wit­hout kno­wing each other’s names. Naming is a dif­fi­cult and time-con­sum­ing pro­cess; it con­cerns essen­ces, and it means power. But on wild nights who can call you home? Only the one who knows your name. Roman­tic love has been diluted into paper­back form and has sold thou­sands and mil­li­ons of copies. Some­whe­re it is still in the ori­gi­nal, writ­ten on tablets of stone. I would cross seas and suf­fer sun­stro­ke and give away all I have, but not for a man, becau­se they want to be the des­troy­er and never be des­troy­ed. That is why they are unfit for roman­tic love. The­re are excep­ti­ons and I hope they are happy.
(Jea­nette Win­ter­son – Oran­ges Are Not The Only Fruit)