Quotation Mark Quandary

[Daisy Lee]

If a character is repeating something someone else said, what is the correct way to format the quotation marks?

Example: Dave spoke up. "The last thing she ever said to me was, "You suck!""

Is that correct? Quote Dave. And also quote 'she' within Dave's quote?

 

[Naomasa298]

If you're using double quote marks around the speech, use single quotes for quotes within the dialogue:

Dave spoke up. "The last thing she ever said to me was, 'You suck!'"

 

[Hammer]

I think it largely depends on where you are - in the UK we tend to use single quotes for speech, in the US it seems to be more doubles, but as @Naomasa298 says, I would differentiate it, so either

"The last thing she ever said to me was, 'You suck!'"

or

'The last thing she ever said to me was, "You suck!"'

 

[Mr Mononoke]

Nao is very correct, though I write them in italics.

Like Hammer said... as long as it is styled differently (I think they are more accurate than what I am doing) it is okay.

 

[Naomasa298]

Depending on your audience and market, it's worth checking out one of the commonly accepted style guides for your area.