ABSTRACT
Quotation is a constant reminder that writing is a form of displacement', suggests Edward Said. Quotation reminds us that writing is displacement. Monica Lewinsky herself took note of the slippery problem posed by unmarked oral quotation when she was deposed by House managers in the impeachment hearing. Early printed quotations appeared not in the run-in text but in the margins, as glosses or evidence of what was being claimed; sometimes they looked more like modern footnotes than quotations. The commentary accompanying quotations in learned texts indicates both the use of, and some textual anxiety about, such designations. Some of the most quoted men and women in history have expressed themselves, quotably, on the question of quotation. In some ways quotation is a kind of cultural ventriloquism, a throwing of the voice that is also an appropriation of authority. Quotations, especially disembodied quotations, can serve an educative function, providing wisdom.
