“I hate writing. I love having written.” —Dorothy Parker
Great quote—and I’ve used it myself. But did Parker really say it?
In our last article, I wrote about sources and citations. This month I want to continue the discussion with a special form: quotes.
Quotes from experts and famous folks can powerfully underscore the points you are trying to make in your book—if you use them well. In Clear Sight’s work on nonfiction manuscripts, we see some common issues with quotes:
- using verbatim language without making it clear it is a quote (aka plagiarism, my friends)
- using a fake quote, misquote, or misattributed quote
- making errors in transcription
Let’s look at some best practices to avoid these issues.
Best practice 1: Formatting quotes
Authors sometimes include verbatim language without indicating it is a quote. Even if a citation is included (see Clear Sight’s article on citations), the formatting of the text should set off verbatim language properly.
There are two options for formatting quotes in text: run-in and block.
Run-in quotes
When you quote a few words or a couple sentences, it often flows better if you keep it within the paragraph, “just like this,” and simply put quotation marks around the quote. As The Chicago Manual of Style says, “In general, a short quotation, especially one that is not a full sentence, should be run in.”
Block quotes
When you have a longer quote—say several lines, 100+ words, or more than one paragraph—setting off the quote on its own might be better. With a block quote, you do not use quotations marks; instead you set the text off from your own. As Chicago says:
Block quotations, which are not enclosed in quotation marks, always start a new line. They are further distinguished from the surrounding text by being indented (from the left and sometimes from the right) or set in smaller type or a different font from the text. These matters are normally decided by the publisher’s designer or by journal style. Authors preparing block quotations in their manuscripts can simply indent them from the left margin.
These are guidelines rather than rules, and the choice of run-in versus block quote is a judgment call. The important thing is to make it clear you are quoting someone. (How long a passage you can quote is another matter, and the legal doctrine of “fair use” comes into play, which is outside the scope of this article.)
Best practice 2: Using authoritative sources for quotes
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary defines authoritative as “possessing recognized or evident authority: clearly accurate or knowledgeable.” That is, something or someone you can trust to be right.
When you are quoting a passage from a book, data from a journal article, or facts from a respected news entity, you can probably consider it authoritative. Of course, you must still use your judgment: Plenty of books and articles propagate bad information. But most authors are pretty good at finding decent sources for factual statements.
The place I see authors not seek out authoritative sources is with what I’ll loosely call “inspirational” quotes, typically from someone famous: “As Mark Twain used to say…”
Authors often use quotes they found online on a quote aggregator site such as Goodreads, A-Z Quotes, or BrainyQuote, or in a “listicle” such as “Top 10 quotes to inspire your workday” on someone’s blog. While these can be great places to get ideas, many of the quotes are incorrect or misattributed. My impression is that these sites gather quotes by scraping other sites or letting users add quotes, and then regurgitating the information without any sort of vetting.
By using quotes from these sites, you may be propagating incorrect information and/or not giving credit where it is due. Start with those types of sites if you like, but once you find a quote, search for it on a more authoritative site to make sure it’s real and accurate.
Finding authoritative sources for inspirational quotes
When I’m trying to verify quotes, here are some of the places I typically look beyond published books and legitimate news outlets:
Quote author’s website – For modern figures, you can sometimes verify a quote on their website. For instance, if you find a Brené Brown quote about courageous leadership on Brené Brown’s own website—such as “I believe that you have to walk through vulnerability to get to courage, therefore…embrace the suck”—you can consider it authoritative.
Project Gutenberg – Project Gutenberg is a great source for public domain books. With the “read online” option, you can quickly search for the quote you want to verify. I regularly look up Jane Austen quotes this way—it’s faster than flipping through my print books.
Wikiquotes – Wikiquotes is a quote aggregator, but they do a reasonable job of vetting the quotes. If you search for Jane Austen, you’ll see plenty of quotes, along with their source (her novels, her letters, and so on), which you can then check further if you like. When you scroll down the author’s page, you will also find sections for disputed and/or misattributed quotes. There are few for Jane, but check out Mark Twain: There is a huge volume of misattributed quotes.
Quote Investigator – Quote Investigator (QI) attempts to trace back quotes to their original source, providing source citations and summarizing their best guess based on the information they can find. So when you read those kitschy quotes attributed to Mark Twain or Will Rogers or Dorothy Parker and you wonder if they are legit, QI is a great place to look.
Of course, there comes a point at which you have to decide you’ve done enough research. And if you want to use an inspirational quote but can’t verify it, you can always add an “attributed to” phrase as a caveat—as in: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” —Mark Twain (attributed)
Best practice 3: Verifying and proofreading quotes
Assuming you have an authoritative source, it is still surprisingly easy to make errors in typing a quote, especially if you are working from print materials. If you can copy and paste from an online source, that helps. But regardless of how you put the quote in your document, ask a second person—your editor or someone else—to verify it is reproduced correctly. Don’t forget that you need to provide them the source!
Back to Dorothy Parker…
So, did Dorothy Parker actually say, “I hate writing. I love having written”?
You may notice this is a pretty generic statement (that should be a red flag), and you have probably heard variations of it (another red flag).
According to Quote Investigator, “Dorothy Parker died in 1967, and the earliest attribution to her appeared in 1972. Thus, the evidence linking her to the quip is weak.” The earliest documented use QI found was Frank Norris in 1915. In a nutshell: “Based on the 1915 citation QI would provisionally credit Frank Norris with the statement ‘Don’t like to write, but like having written.’”
To see the variations and find out who else has been credited with this quote, read the QI article.
And the next time you quote someone, use an authoritative source, format the quote correctly, and don’t forget to proofread!
I like verifying quotes about as much as I like formatting footnotes…and yet we’re all about giving credit where it’s due here at Clear Sight Books, so it gets done. Need help on your book project? Get in touch: karin@clearsightbooks.com.