Curated Quote
A quotation selected and presented by an editor or collector for a particular effect.
A curated quotation is one chosen from a larger body of work by an editor, anthologist, or collector and presented with the intention of shaping the reader's impression. The curator's hand is invisible but decisive: the same author can be made to look solemn, witty, or radical depending on which sentence is selected.
Curated quotation is the business of quotation books, 'quote of the day' calendars, social media accounts, and museum wall text. In every case, the quotation is lifted from its native context and placed in a new one chosen by the curator.
The ethical duty of the curator is to represent the source fairly. A curator who selects only an author's most inflammatory sentences misleads the reader about the author's overall view. The best curators give enough context for the reader to judge the selection.
Common mistake: confusing curation with authorship. A quotation in a curated list is still by the original speaker; the curator is the selector, not the writer.
“Selected for the anthology: 'The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.'”
Keep reading the glossary
The daily-quotation format — calendar, newsletter, widget — and the accuracy problems it creates.
A personal notebook of quotations, ideas, and passages — a tradition stretching from antiquity to today.
A square, image-based social-media graphic in which a pull-quote is set in large type over a photograph or plain background.
An adjective describing a phrase, person, or work that lends itself naturally to being quoted.