'And I Quote...': A History of Using Other People's Words

Quotations are an essential part of the fabric of the language. In And I quote, Elizabeth Knowles draws on her experience editing the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and employs a wide repertoire of examples, ranging from the classical canon to contemporary popular culture, to illuminate just how and why we quote.

Her investigation focuses on how we find, choose, and use quotations in 21st century English, but it also leads her back in time to follow the journeys taken by individual quotes,...