Rich-All English Literature Classes

Using Quotes

One should always use quotes in a sentence. Allowing them to stand alone makes your writing weak stylistically. Punctuating quotes correctly sends messages to the reader about how interpret the voice, so taking care while quoting is important for conveying the meaning that we want to convey.

There are three basic ways to incorporate quotes into a sentence:

1. As part of the sentence:

The old man endured people "tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren't a supernatural creature but a circus animal" (Marquez 349).

The hunger artist "always wanted [his audience] to enjoy [his] fasting" (Kafka 180).

Louise Erdrich’s The Painted Drum uses the drum to symbolize a Chippewa world view, as it “is the world’s order” (183).

2. With an introduction:

The "husband" in Wide Sargasso Sea repeats Antoinette's words about Christophine, saying, "She said, 'Christophine knows about ghosts too, but that is not what she calls them'" (Rhys 82).

Toni Morrison's character Twyla is self-conscious about her uniform and describes what she is wearing but also uses her description to show how she feels, and she says, "Nothing could have been less sheer than my stockings" (Morrison 215).

3. With a colon (this form also is standard for using long quotes):

Short Quote: "The Juniper Tree" portrays the stepmother as being pure evil: "Then the little boy came in at the door, and the Devil made her say to him kindly: 'My son, will you have an apple?' and she looked wickedly at him" (Grimm 17).

Long Quote (Use long quotes when the source text exceeds three lines):

Woody Guthrie explains his perception and use of prayer:
Then I put my three cents worth in, saying, "I believe that when ya pray, you're tryin' ta get yer thinkin' straight, tryin' ta see what's wrong with th' world, an' who's ta blame fer it. Part of it is crooks, crooked laws, an' jist dam greedy people. Part of it's all of this, an' part of it's jist dam shore our own fault." (Guthrie 230)

Notes: The above quote is in HTML, so it is not set off 10 spaces on the left as it should be or double spaced as it should be. Do not indent a long quote on the right margin. Long quotes do not use quotation marks, and when there is a quote within a quote, we use double quotation marks, which is the opposite of what we use with a quote within a short quote.