Livre d'Or

I'm hardly an expert on relationships, but I reckon a shared point of view is the most important thing in a relationship. Whilst good communication is vital, if you're still requiring communication after the initial honeymoon period and don't just *know* roughly what the other person wants there's a fundamental incompatibility between you. Other things include common interests, good sex and reasonable amounts of compatibility.

As to "what if I say something general and it's taken as a personal insult" and suchlike, the difference with being adult is that we realise that sometimes people don't mean precisely what they say, or that we've misheard or similar. You give people a bit of leeway, and frankly, if there is no leeway at all - you'd hardly want to be in a relationship of any kind with them, would you?