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: So you seen your birthday was comin up and that seemed like the right day.
WHITE: Who knows? Maybe birthdays are dangerous. Like Christmas. Ornaments hanging from the trees, wreaths from the doors, and bodies from the steampipes all over America. (6)
If someone is depressed and isolated, it's especially easy to feel even more depressed and isolated when it's a holiday. There's also a certain symmetry involved: White wants to make his birthday his death day.
Quote #2
BLACK: They could be out there. Maybe they's some other drugproof terminal commuters out there that could be your friends.
WHITE: Terminal commuters?
BLACK: Got a nice sound to it, doesn't it? (85)
If you're a "terminal commuter," you're getting ready for a commute that's headed toward a final end from which there's no coming back, in this case, death.
Quote #3
BLACK: But they might be one commuter waitin there on the edge of that platform that for him it's somethin else. It might even be the edge of the world. The edge of the universe. He's starin' at the end of all tomorrows and he's drawin' a shade over ever yesterday that ever was. (87)
All the other commuters are just going to normal, everyday places—think: work, breakfast, school—but the "terminal commuter" is headed for his or her great leap in the dark, voyaging into whatever awaits him or her in eternity.