When I included a quotation from the Bible at the start of A Time For Silence, I wrote it without attributing it. I was told I really needed to, so “Ecclesiastes” was added. I suppose I could have attributed it to Pete Seeger instead, but the Bible seemed more appropriate. I was really thinking of an radio interview with an Anglican clergyman who suggested that mention of chapters and verses should not be added to Biblical passages on gravestones, because it should be assumed that the reader who know the passage. It is advice that is universally ignored, of course, but I prefer that way of looking at quotations.

What do you do with them, if you mention them in the text? I suppose, if you make a meal of quoting an entire verse or passage, you might be expected to attribute it to the original writer. Perhaps like…