Citing passages from short stories or novels

To cite a passage from a short story or a novel, use a page number in parentheses after the quoted words.

The narrator of Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.,” known to us only as “Sister,” makes many catty remarks about her enemies. For example, she calls Mr. Whitaker “this photographer with the pop-eyes” (46).

If a novel has numbered divisions, give the page number and a semicolon; then indicate the book, part, or chapter in which the passage is found. Use abbreviations such as “bk.” and “ch.”

One of Kingsolver’s narrators, teenager Rachel, pushes her vocabulary beyond its limits. For example, Rachel complains that being forced to live in the Congo with her missionary family is “a sheer tapestry of justice” because her chances of finding a boyfriend are “dull and void” (117; bk. 2, ch. 10).

When a quotation from a work of fiction takes up four or fewer typed lines, put it in quotation marks and run it into the text of your essay, as in the two previous examples.

When a quotation is five typed lines or longer, set it off from the text by indenting one-half inch from the left margin; do not use quotation marks. Put the parenthetical citation after the final mark of punctuation.

Sister’s tale begins with “I,” and she makes every event revolve around herself, even her sister’s marriage:

I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy, and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her husband and came back home again. Mr. Whitaker! Of course I went with Mr. Whitaker first, when he first appeared here in China Grove, taking “Pose Yourself” photos, and Stella-Rondo broke us up. (46)

Related topics:

Using quotations appropriately (MLA)

Using the ellipsis mark to limit quoted material (MLA)

Using brackets and the ellipsis mark to indicate changes in a quotation

Using brackets to make quotations clear (MLA)

Indenting long quotations (MLA)

Using signal phrases to integrate sources (MLA)