What is a “quotation”? It is a saying or piece of writing that strikes people as so true or memorable that they quote it (or allude to it) in speech or writing. Often they will quote it directly, introducing it with a phrase like “As——says” but equally often they will assume that the reader or listener already knows the quotation, and they will simply allude to it without mentioning its source (as in the headline “A rosè is a rosè is a rosè,” referring obliquely to a line by Gertrude Stein)