"The Sunset Limited" Quotes

[Sunset Limited]

"I don't believe in God. Can you understand that? Look around you man. Cant you see? The clamor and din of those in torment has to be the sound most pleasing to his ear. And I loathe these discussions. The argument of the village atheist whose single passion is to revile endlessly that which he denies the existence of in the first place. Your fellowship is a fellowship of pain and nothing more. And if that pain were actually collective instead of simply reiterative then the sheer weight of it would drag the world from the walls of the universe and send it crashing and burning through whatever night it might yet be capable of engendering until it was not even ash. And justice? Brotherhood? Eternal life? Good god, man. Show me a religion that prepares one for death. For nothingness. There's a church I might enter. Yours prepares one only for more life. For dreams and illusions and lies. If you could banish the fear of death from men's hearts they wouldnt live a day. Who would want this nightmare if not for fear of the next? The shadow of the axe hangs over every joy. Every road ends in death. Or worse. Every friendship. Every love. Torment, betrayal, loss, suffering, pain, age, indignity, and hideous lingering illness. All with a single conclusion. For you and for every one and everything that you have chosen to care for. There's the true brotherhood. The true fellowship. And everyone is a member for life. You tell me that my brother is my salvation? My salvation? Well then damn him. Damn him in every shape and form and guise. Do I see myself in him? Yes. I do. And what I see sickens me. Do you understand me? Can you understand me?"

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

 

[jodes2]

Well written

 

[Sunset Limited]

"You give up the world line by line. Stoically. And then one day you realize that your courage is farcical. It doesn't mean anything. You've become an accomplice in your own annihilation and there is nothing you can do about it. Everything you do closes a door somewhere ahead of you. And finally there is only one door left."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

 

[Sunset Limited]

"I yearn for the darkness. I pray for death. Real death. If I thought that in death I would meet the people I've known in life I don't know what I'd do. That would be the ultimate horror. The ultimate despair. If I had to meet my mother again and start all of that all over, only this time without the prospect of death to look forward to? Well. That would be the final nightmare. Kafka on wheels."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

"I want the dead to be dead forever. I don't want to be one of them, except of course you can't be one of them. You can't be one of the dead because that which, has no existence can have no community. No community! My heart warms just thinking about it. Blackness, aloneness ,silence, peace, and all of it only a heartbeat away."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

 

[Forever Sleep]

Wow- that's SO true- many of our religions don't actually prepare us for death- or, maybe it's because we don't ENTIRELY believe in them that's the problem. If I felt like I knew for SURE what happens at death, I reckon I'd be a lot more comfortable.

I used to find the Aztecs pretty fascinating. Scary with all that human sacrifice but it did seem like at least some of their 'victims' were only too honoured to be killed. (Not all of them obviously.) I think a strong belief in a faith- especially one that is very clear about an afterlife can relieve the anxiety around dying. Honestly- actually KNOWING there was nothing would probably comfort me the most now.

 

[Sunset Limited]

"The darker picture is always the correct one. When you read the history of the world you are reading a saga of bloodshed and greed and folly the import of which is impossible to ignore. And yet we imagine that the future will somehow be different. I've no idea why we are even still here but in all probability we will not be here much longer."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

 

[Sunset Limited]

"Your god must once have stood at a dawn of infinite possibilities, and this is what he's made of it. You tell me that I want God's love? I don't. Perhaps I want forgiveness, but there's no-one to ask it of. And there's no going back, there's no setting things right, there's only the hope of nothingness."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

 

[Ultracheese]

I love Cormac, one of our greatest living writers in my opinion. His characters often have an (understandably) cynical view on life and its rawness and tragedy, but the prose surrounding it is so beautiful. He's a great reflector of life, showing both the beauty and the suffering.

 

[Sunset Limited]

From Black.

"Well. I was just thinkin that them is some pretty powerful words. I dont know that I got an answer about any of that and it might be that they aint no answer. But still I got to ask what is the use of notions such as them if it wont keep you glued down to the platform when the Sunset Limited comes through at eighty mile a hour."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

 

[Sunset Limited]

From Black.

"Why do you think it? Why do you think there is something? I dont know. It just seems to me that a man that cant wait for a train to run over him has got to have somethin on his mind. Most folks would settle for maybe just a slap up the side of the head. You say you dont care about nothin but I dont believe that. I dont believe that death is ever about nothin. You asked me what I thought it was you was holdin on to and I got to say I dont know. Or maybe I just dont have the words to say it. And maybe you know but you aint sayin. But I believe that when you took your celebrated leap you was holdin on to it and takin it with you. Holdin on for grim death. I look for the words, Professor. I look for the words because I believe that the words is the way to your heart."

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited

 

[Sunset Limited]

From Black

"It's them reasons that your brother dont know nothin about hangin by his necktie from the steampipe down in the basement. He got his own dumb-ass reasons, but maybe if we could educate him to where some of them more elegant reasons was available to him and his buddies then they'd be a lot of folks out there could off theyselves with more joy in they hearts. What do you think?"

― Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited