Q. In fiction, when a character’s entire dialogue is quoted material or a quoted title of a work, do I need to use both double and single quotation marks around the dialogue? Thanks!
A. We would recommend using both sets of marks. For example,
“What did Bartleby say?” he asked.
“ ‘I would prefer not to,’ ” I replied.
“What’s that from?” he asked.
“ ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener,’ ” I replied. “It’s a famous story.”
In the second line of dialogue, the nested single quotation marks remind readers that the first-person narrator of “I replied” isn’t the same person as the “I” in quotation marks; rather, those are Bartleby’s words. In the fourth line, the nested quotation marks are somewhat less important, but consider that if “Bartleby” were a novel instead of a story, the title would be in italics; the single quotation marks play a similar role. See also CMOS 6.11 and 12.46.