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
WHITE: This place. It's a horrible place. Full of horrible people.
BLACK: Oh my.
WHITE: You must know these people are not worth saving. Even if they could be saved. Which they cant. You must know that.
BLACK: Well, I always liked a challenge. (40)
White sees the ghetto where Black lives as a place completely devoid of goodness, so in his eye, it's not worthy of compassion. But Black, to the contrary, wants to bring compassion to the place where it's most needed.
Quote #2
BLACK: […] Once he's quit breathin you cant help him no more. After that he's in the hands of other parties. So you got to look after him now. You might even want to monitor his train schedule. (77)
When White points out that there's "no ministry in hell" and that "God gives up at some point," Black argues that's why you need to love your brother now and have mercy. It's now or never for Black.
Quote #3
WHITE: And [Jesus is] interested in coming here to this cesspool and salvaging what everybody knows is unsalvageable. Why would he do that? You said he didn't have a lot of free time. Why would he come here? What would be the difference to him between a building that was morally and spiritually vacant and one that was just plain empty? (77)
White challenges the very idea that people are capable of salvation. He doesn't believe that even if there were a God, the dude (or dudette) would even waste time on humans. In White's view, the world is just that depraved.