Examples

Example 1

"Sometimes I dance around my bedroom and sing this song," Tim admitted when the DJ played "Baby Got Back."

In this example, Tim's painful confession belongs in quotation marks because it's a direct quote from Tim. Notice that the end punctuation (in this case, a comma) goes inside the quotation marks. "Baby Got Back" also belongs in quotation marks because it's the name of a famous American anti-war song. Just kidding. It's a song about butts.

Example 2

In the business and tech worlds, exploring a subject in-depth is called a "deep dive."

In this sentence, deep dive is in quotation marks because it's a technical term. It also deviates from what you'd expect a deep dive to mean: namely, in the absence of a sophisticated breathing apparatus and some seriously bizarre seacreatures.

Example 3

Autumn laughed and said, "For years, I thought Jimi Hendrix was singing 'Excuse me while I kiss this guy' instead of the correct lyrics."

Don't feel bad, Autumn. "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" is arguably the most commonly misheard song lyric of all time. Here, we have an example of a quotation within a quotation. When that happens, use single quotation marks for the inside quotation.