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: What. We done opened a can of worms here? What you got against bein happy?
WHITE: It's contrary to the human condition.
BLACK: Well. It's contrary to your condition. I got to agree with that. (54)
White thinks happiness is a fraud. Humans aren't made for happiness—instead they're doomed to suffer, since the things that make them happy all go away, disappear, or die.
Quote #2
WHITE: Well, you cant be happy if you're in pain.
BLACK: Why not?
WHITE: You're not making any sense […]
BLACK: The point, Professor, is that if you didnt have no pain in your life then how would you even know you was happy? As compared to what?" (55)
Happiness doesn't make sense without pain, good doesn't make sense without evil, hot doesn't make sense without cold—according to Black. In other words, pain's a necessary ingredient in making happiness possible.
Quote #3
BLACK: Yes. Because what he really wants he cant get. Or he thinks he cant get it. So what he really dont want he can't get enough of…
WHITE: So what is it that he really wants…
BLACK: He wants what everybody wants.
WHITE: And that is?
BLACK: He wants to be loved by God. (59)
This is straight-up Saint Augustine: Instead of desiring the thing humans really want—to be loved by God—they go off in a multitude of different directions. Some of us think we really love smashing people's heads in with hammers, others think it's eating blue cheese, and some even think it's enjoying the musical numbers of One Direction. But what everyone really wants is God's love… at least according to Black and Saint Augustine, anyway.
Quote #4
BLACK: […] I think whatever truth is wrote in these pages is wrote in the human heart too and it was wrote there a long time ago and will still be wrote there a long time hence. Even if this book is burned every copy of it. What Jesus said? I dont think he made up a word of it. I think he just told it. This book is a guide for the ignorant and the sick at heart. A whole man wouldn't need it at all. (68)
The Bible is an expression, in Black's interpretation, of the deepest truths of the human heart. It's supposed to lead you back to your own wisdom, put you in touch with the inner Word of God. A "whole man"—like Adam before the Fall—wouldn't need the Bible, since he'd be in a state of purity, completely innocent and free. He would already automatically act correctly, just by following his heart.
Quote #5
BLACK: […] That ain't what he said. He said you could have life everlastin. Life. Have it today. Hold it in your hand. That you could see it. It gives off a light. It's got a little weight to it. Not much. Warm to the touch. Just a little. And it's forever. And you can have it. Now. Today. But you don't want it. You don't want it cause to get it you got to let you brother off the hook. (78)
You can have life everlasting today, says Black, in this life, instead of enduring "death in life." It just involves a change in perspective, a change in orientation toward the world—and that means viewing people as possessing the same spirit, that deep "forever thing" (95) existing in their essence.