Hey guys, I'm writing a short story that is a about a guy who learns to curb his anger problem by solving whole bunch of clues and he does it with his best friend who is a motivational speaker. His best friend reminds him of this one quote about a rock cutter only being able to split his rock on the 101th blow and I was wondering if I should put this quote in italics or in the " ' " state of writing as I am stuck as to how I should state it in my story. If anyone could help me on this I'd greatly apreaciate it! Thanks and have a great day!
Well, if you want to signify that it's a quote, and the character is giving it as a quote, I guess you could put it in quotation marks: "You know Jim, I'm reminded of this quote '[insert quote]'" But if he just gives the quote there's no need to signify it. He could just say it.
good evening to all- RM- If this material is a direct quote and recognized as such, then by all means put it in quotes. Like this: Mark Twain said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." But you can also do an indirect quote like this: Mark Twain said that writers should not let the truth get in the way of a good story. Both quotes give credit to the original writer, but they read differently. Use the form that fits the work. And putting a direct quote inside of another quote is a damned awkward construction. Just saying. good night to all- Ed
I agree with what has already been said, so I will just add: if you do go the way of using quote marks, the formatting rules for that is single quote marks are used inside double quote marks, and vice-versa.
I remember once I saw a quote from Napoleon at the beginning of a book. It was all in italic and no quotation marks. Your situation is different though.
I think, as stated above, it depends on how it is presented. That said, a direct quote should always have double quotation marks. A quote inside a direct quote should always have single quotation marks. You can drop all quotation marks with an indirect quote, or when paraphrasing.
