Typesetting quotations

When it comes to quotations and quotation marks, each language has its own symbols and rules. For this reason, several LaTeX packages have been created to assist in typesetting quotations in-line, in display mode or at the beginning of each chapter. It's important to remark that even if you are typing quotes on English there are different quotation marks used in English (UK) and English (US). Plenty of different quotation marks can be typeset with LaTeX, and there are options for almost every language (see the reference guide).

The dirtytalk Package

dirtytalk is a very small LaTeX package with only one available command: \say, shown in the next example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{dirtytalk}

\begin{document}
\section{Introduction}

Typing quotations with this package is quite easy:

\say{Here, a quotation is written and even some \say{nested} quotations 
are possible}

\end{document}

The package is loaded by putting in the preamble:

\usepackage{dirtytalk}

Supports one nested quotation and have options to redefine the quotes glyphs. For instance, in a document in French the next code should work

\usepackage[frenchb]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[
    left = \flqq{},% 
    right = \frqq{},% 
    leftsub = \flq{},% 
    rightsub = \frq{} %
]{dirtytalk}

The first two commands define the primary left and right quotation marks, the second pair of commands define the secondary set of quotation marks.

This package is suitable for most situations. It's very simple, since only one command is needed, and it supports nesting quotations to one degree.

If a more complex quotation mark structure is required, the options listed in the next sections may be more effective.

  Open an example of the dirtytalk package in Overleaf

csquotes

The csquotes package provides advanced facilities for in-line and display quotations. Supports a wide-range of commands, environments and user-definable quotes. Quotes can be automatically adjusted to the current language by means of the babel or polyglossia packages. This package is suitable for documents with complex quotation requirements, therefore it has a vast variety of commands to insert in-line quotes, quotes with sources, block-quotes with the support of changing language.

Below is an example of the csquotes package working with babel in a document in Spanish to automatically load the proper quotation glyphs (gillemets) in this language.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[spanish]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\begin{document}

La siguiente frase es atribuída a Linus Torvals:

\begin{displayquote}
Sé que tengo un ego del tamaño de un planeta pequeño, pero incluso yo a 
veces me equivoco
\end{displayquote}

La frase revela un aspecto importante de su \textquote{jocosa} personalidad.
\end{document}

The package is imported by

\usepackage{csquotes}

right after importing babel. In the example the environment displayquote prints a display quotation and the command \textquote an in-line quotation.

This package may be a bit overwhelming because of the large number of available commands and environments, but for most of the cases the two commands shown above might suffice.

  Open an example of the csquotes package in Overleaf

epigraph

Some authors like to write quotations at the beginning of a chapter, these quotations are known as epigraphs. The epigraph package provides a vast set of options to typeset the epigraphs and epigraphs lists.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\usepackage{epigraph}

...

\chapter{Something}

\epigraph{All human things are subject to decay, and when fate 
summons, Monarchs must obey}{\textit{Mac Flecknoe \\ John Dryden}}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit...

The package is imported by

\usepackage{epigraph}

Then the quotation is typed with the command \epigraph{}{} whose first parameter is the quotation itself and the second parameter is the quotations source (author, book, etc.)

This package can handle several quotations by means of a special environment and also has many customization options.

  Open an example of the epigraph package in Overleaf

fancychapters

There's another package to typeset epigraphs or quotations at the beginning of each chapter, fancychapters. This package provides a new command to define chapter titles:

\documentstyle[fancychapters]{report}

\begin{document}
\Chapter{
    ``Parents of young organic life forms should be warned, that
towels can be harmful, if swallowed in large quantities.''
\\[5pt]
\rightline{{\rm --- Douglas Adams}}
}[No More]{Building No More Operating Systems}

For this package to work, the first line in the document must be

\documentstyle[fancychapters]{report}

The type book can also be set instead of report.

The command \Chapter takes two parameters inside braces. The first one is the quote to by printed on top of the title, the second one is the chapter title. There's and additional optional parameter inside brackets that corresponds to the optional parameter of the regular \chapter command.

This package only works on books and reports. Even though the package works fine and automatically computes the width and height of the quotation and the chapter title, it seems that it's not longer maintained.

  Open an example of the fancychapters package in Overleaf

quotchap

The package quotechap is somehow similar to fancychapters but more complex. It redefines the commands chapter and its starred version to reformat them, you can even change the colour of the chapter number with this package. Also, provides a special environment to typeset quotations and the corresponding authors.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\usepackage{quotchap}

\begin{document}
\begin{savequote}[45mm]
---When shall we three meet again
in thunder, lightning, or in rain?
---When the hurlyburly’s done,
when the battle’s lost and won.
\qauthor{Shakespeare, Macbeth}
Cookies! Give me some cookies!
\qauthor{Cookie Monster}
\end{savequote}
\chapter{Classic Sesame Street}
\end{document}

The package is imported by the command

\usepackage{quotchap}

then, inside the environment savequote the quotes are typed. The parameter inside brackets, 45mm, sets the width of the quotation area. After each quote the command \qauthor{} is used to typeset and format the author's name.

  Open an example of the quotechap package in Overleaf

Reference guide

A small table of quotation marks in several languages:

Further reading

For more information see

• International language support
• Arabic
• Chinese
• French
• German
• Greek
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish
• List of Greek letters and math symbols
• Font sizes, families, and styles
• Supporting modern fonts with XƎLaTeX
• The dirtytalk package documentation
• The csquotes package documentation
• The epigraph package documentation
• The fancychapters source code (includes documentation)
• The quotechap package documentation
• LaTeX/Special_Characters on WikiBooks