Are Quotes Italicized?
No. Quotes sit inside quotation marks (short) or as a block (long), not italics. Italics are reserved for titles of long works.
Quick Answer
No, quotations are not italicised in standard English writing. Short quotes get double quotation marks; long quotes get block format with an indent. Italics are reserved for titles of long works (books, films, journals, albums), foreign words, words used as words and a few other specific categories.
Chicago, AP, MLA and APA all agree on this. The only time italics appear inside a quote is when the original used italics, or when you added them for emphasis and flagged the change to your reader.
What to Use Instead
- Short prose quotes: wrap in double quotation marks and run them into your paragraph. The report concludes that "the policy worked" (Lee 14).
- Long prose quotes: start a new line, indent the block half an inch from the left margin, double space, no quotation marks. MLA defines long as more than four lines.
- Single-line poetry quotes: double quotation marks. Multiple lines of poetry use a slash with a space on either side ( / ) to mark line breaks, or block format for three or more lines.
When Italics Are Correct
Italics belong on five main categories of words in academic and professional writing.
- Titles of long, standalone works: novels, plays, films, TV series, journals, magazines, albums, paintings, ships and aircraft.
- Foreign words and phrases not common in English. Anglicised words like cafe, sushi, ad hoc do not get italicised.
- Words used as words: The word polysemy describes one word with many meanings.
- Letters used as letters and mathematical variables: the letter x stands for the unknown.
- Emphasis, used sparingly. Bold is often clearer on screen.
If the Original Was Italicised
Preserve the original italics inside your quote so the reader sees what the author saw. "The verdict was final," the report concludes. If the original italicised "final," your quoted version must keep that italic. Editors who silently strip original italics are misquoting.
If You Add Italics for Emphasis
If you italicise a word inside someone else's quote for emphasis, flag the change. The standard convention in MLA and Chicago is to add "emphasis mine" or "italics added" in your parenthetical citation, like (Smith 42; emphasis mine). Otherwise readers cannot tell whose emphasis they are looking at.
Block Quotes Stay Roman
Block quotes already signal "this is a quote" through indentation and white space. Putting them in italics on top double labels them and is wrong in every major style. Block quotes use the same typeface as the surrounding text.
Common Mistakes
- Italicising every quote to make it stand out. The marks and indent do that already.
- Both quote marks and italics. Choose one. Quote marks for short quotes; italics only for titles of long works.
- Stripping original italics. If the source italicised, your quote must preserve that.
- Adding emphasis without flagging it. Always note "emphasis mine" so the reader knows.
How AP, Chicago and MLA Compare
All three major style guides agree: quotations themselves are not italicised. The differences are about which works get italics versus quotation marks for their titles. Long works are italicised; short works inside larger collections (articles, songs, episodes, chapters) take quotation marks. Quoted speech and text remain in roman type throughout.
Bottom Line
Quotes are not italicised. Use double quotation marks for short quotes, block format for long ones, and reserve italics for titles of long works, foreign terms and a handful of other specific cases. If you add italics inside a quote for emphasis, flag the change so your reader can trust the original wording.
More context worth knowing
To round out the answer, here is some additional background on when quotations should or should not be italicized. Style guides treat this rule as more than a cosmetic choice. It signals to readers that the writer respects the original source, follows a consistent convention, and understands the difference between American and British practice. When you write about quotes italicized in any professional setting, that consistency is what separates a polished page from a draft that distracts the reader.
Editors at major publishers, including university presses, trade magazines, and legal journals, run every manuscript through a style check that flags exactly this kind of issue. If the guidance feels picky, remember that search engines and screen readers also rely on consistent punctuation to parse a sentence correctly. A misplaced quotation mark can change how an excerpt is rendered in a featured snippet, an email preview, or an accessibility tool.
Practical tip: keep a one-page cheat sheet next to your keyboard with the three rules you reach for most often. For quotes italicized, that usually means the rule about capitalization, the rule about punctuation placement, and the rule about block quotations. Anything more than three rules tends to be forgotten under deadline pressure, so curate ruthlessly.
If you write for a global audience, double check whether your house style follows American English or British English. The two traditions disagree on punctuation placement around quotation marks, on the choice between single and double marks for the outer quotation, and on whether long quotations should be indented or set off with a colon. Picking one tradition and sticking to it across a whole site is more important than picking the "correct" one, because mixed styles confuse readers and weaken trust.
Finally, if you are publishing online, remember that screen readers announce quotation marks differently depending on the user's settings. Curly smart quotes, straight typewriter quotes, and the special primes used for measurements are not interchangeable. Use the correct character for the job so that assistive tech reads your sentence the way you intended, and so that copy-paste into another document preserves your meaning.