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 #4
BLACK: Oh yeah. [The toilet's] a favorite place for drunks to hide a bottle. But the point of course is that the drunk's concern aint that he's goin to die from drinkin—which he is. It's that he's going to run out of whiskey fore he gets a chance to do it. (58)
Black explains how crazy the psychology of suffering is: You crave the thing that will kill you, and avoid the thing that could save you and remove your suffering. You're addicted to your suffering, in fact—it's the hardest thing for you to put down.
Quote #5
WHITE: You're thinking that I loathe them because I'm like them and I loathe myself. (83)
Black just speculated on why White might loathe his colleagues at the University. Black seems to be proved right later on, too, when White says that he's disgusted when he sees himself reflected in the people around him.
Quote #6
BLACK: I don't know. Maybe [the other commuters] just in your way. Or you dont like the way they look. The way they smell. What they doin.
WHITE: And I would mutter something ugly under my breath.
BLACK: Yeah.
WHITE: I suppose. (89)
White admits that he curses the people around him under his breath, probably around five times a day. Black thinks this might have something to do with the suicidal state he's gotten himself into—it can't be good for your psychology to have so much disdain filtering through your mind at all times.