Quote Format
When you include quotes in your paper, you must follow specific MLA formatting guidelines. See the rules and examples below for different types of quotes:
Prose (4 lines or less)
Incorporate the quote into your text as normal. Include citation after closing quotation make and before the period.
Example:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” wrote Charles Dickens of the eighteenth century (35).
Prose (more than 4 lines)
Incorporate the quote into your text as normal. Include citation after closing quotation make and before the period.
Example:
Poetry (3 lines or less)
Incorporate the quote into your text and use a forward slash ( / ) to indicate line breaks and double forward slash ( // ) to indicate stanza breaks.
Example:
The Tao te ching, in David Hinton’s translation, says that the ancient masters were “so deep beyond knowing / we can only describe their appearance // perfectly cautious, as if crossing winter streams. . .”
Poetry (MORE THAN 3 LINES)
Indent the quote ½ inch from the left margin and place parenthetical citation after the period. Do not use quotation marks.
Example:
Drama (Short single character dialogue)
Incorporate the quote into your text use a forward slash ( / ) to indicate line breaks. Include citation after closing quotation make and before the period.
Example:
Horatio says of the ghost: "And then it started like a guilty thing / Upon a fearful summons" (1.1.148).
Drama (More complex dialogue)
Indent the quote ½ inch from the left margin and begin each character’s line with that character’s name in capital letters followed by a period (HAMLET.). Start the quotation following the name and indent all subsequent lines. Place parenthetical citation after the period. Do not use quotation marks.
Example:
HAMLET. A little more than kin, and less than kind.
CLAUDIUS. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? (1.2.65-66)