- Black asks White what he does believe in, and White says that he believes in "a lot of things"—specifically, cultural things: books, music, and art.
- But White claims that these things have lost their value, since people stopped valuing them; he did, too, to some extent.
- His education made the world "personal" to him, so when the world stopped valuing these cultural things, he decided to opt out and kill himself.
- Black asks what the use of these things was if they couldn't save White from suicide, and White says that's a good question. He says that cultural things were a good deal of what prevented him from committing suicide before, but now he says he might not even believe in those.
- White says he believes in the Sunset Limited—the train he tried to kill himself by jumping under. He believes in death. Western Civilization was destroyed during the barbarism of the Holocaust and World War II, in his view.
- Black thinks this is pretty bleak and tells White that he's a challenge.
- Again White says he should go, but Black asks him if he has any friends. He has one friend—not a close friend—at the university, who he gets lunch with now and then.
- Black says that since this is the Professor's only friend, he must be his best friend. He asks White if he did anything to this guy, but the Professor denies it and says he's not his best friend. They're not really close and White didn't leave him a suicide note or anything.