“Maybe that's the reason," Adam said slowly, feeling his way. "Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. Maybe-maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself? I can see it pretty clearly. I can see how you loved him and what it did to you. I did not love him. Maybe he loved me. He tested me and hurt me and punished me and finally he sent me out like a sacrifice, maybe to make up for something. But he did not love you, and so he had faith in you. Maybe — why, maybe it's a kind of reverse.”
More from John Steinbeck
“If it is right, it happens — the main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away”
“A man so painfully in love is capable of self-torture beyond belief.”
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
“There’s a responsibility in being a person. It’s more than just taking up space where air…”