How we cite our quotes: In consultation with my editor, we decided (against standard practice) to go with page numbers—since The Sunset Limited is one long act and it would be unwieldy and impractical to number all the lines.
Quote #1
BLACK: Runnin blindfold through the woods with the bit tween your teeth. Oh man. Didnt I try it though. If you can find a soul that give it a better shot than me I'd like to meet him. I surely would. And what do you reckon it got me?
WHITE: I dont know. What did it get you?
BLACK: Death in life. That's what it got me. (14)
What is death in life? It's like being shut off from the basic current of existence while still being a part of existence. You're walking around, but you're not really a part of the purpose of what you're walking in—you're living in your own death-like little corner of reality, wrapped up in yourself.
Quote #2
BLACK: You ever had one of them days when things was just sort of weird all the way around? When things just kindly fell into place?
WHITE: I'm not sure what you mean.
BLACK: Just one of them days. Just kind of magic. One of them days when everything turns out right.
WHITE: I don't know. Maybe. Why?
BLACK: I just wondered if maybe it aint been kindly a long dry spell for you. Until you finally took up with the notion that that's the way the world is. (42)
Without a feeling of magic in the universe—a few good days every now and then—you start to sense that things are completely out of whack, and everything just seems futile and pointless. Black thinks this might just be a bad state of mind White's fallen into, so a radical change in fortunes (like Black providentially saving him) might move his mind around to the light.
Quote #3
WHITE: We were born in such a fix as this. Suffering and human destiny are the same thing. Each is a description of the other. (55)
White thinks that life is suffering, that we were made for it. It kind of makes sense, then, that he just wants to be obliterated. We might be made to suffer, but he's all no thanks.