Epigraph Formatting
The typographic conventions for the quotation that opens a book or chapter.
An epigraph is set apart from the text it introduces and follows a distinct set of conventions. It takes no quotation marks — the position on the page already signals that the words are borrowed. It is usually set smaller than body text, often italic or indented, and separated from the following text by generous space.
The attribution sits below the quotation, flush right or indented, preceded by an em dash in most house styles: —Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace. Chicago advises giving only author and title in the epigraph itself, with full publication details relegated to a source note or the copyright page rather than cluttering the opening.
Copyright is the practical constraint. A book-length epigraph programme quoting living poets and songwriters generally requires permission for each item, and permissions for song lyrics in particular are expensive and frequently refused. Public-domain sources exist partly because of this.
Common mistake: adding quotation marks around the epigraph, or ending the attribution line with a period after a title that already carries its own punctuation. Keep the apparatus minimal; the epigraph should read as a threshold, not a footnote.
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. —Simone Weil, letter to Joë Bousquet, 1942”
Keep reading the glossary
A short quotation set at the beginning of a book, chapter, or essay to suggest its theme.
A long quotation set off as its own indented paragraph, without quotation marks.
A long quotation set off from the surrounding text by margin indentation instead of quotation marks.
The em-dash convention for attributing a freestanding quote (— Author).