Would you say “quote/end quote”?

Question

A girl said, quote, I want a lollipop, end quote, as she walked past the candy store.

Would you say it like that out loud?

Answer 1

When reading a book aloud for recorded books, the reader never says "quote / unquote". Instead they indicate the quotation by a verbal change, such as a pause, or a change in the reading style or both.

The only time I've heard the quote / unquote construction used verbally is when one person is reading aloud another person's words during a debate or an argument.

For example, a television interviewer catching a politician in a lie by saying

"But Senator, only last month when speaking before the XYV committee you said, and I quote, 'blah blah blah' end quote. Did you indeed say that Senator?"

In this example, the use of "quote / end quote" is an attempt by the journalist to inject some drama by verbally indicating he is quoting the senator verbatim.

Answer 2

It would be appropriate to say this if you were verbally transcribing or dictating text and wanted to be very clear (or needed to verbalize every non-comma punctuation mark).

Answer 3

No; I'd say:

A girl said she wanted a lollipop as she walked past the candy store.

Using “quote” and “end quote” in speech usually sounds quite awkward, and it's rarely that important to punctuate the quotation like that for the listener.

Answer 4

Dialogue read in text is marked by a change in intonation; the reading of quotations is often worked into a sentence, but may be read as dialogue.

Answer 5

I wouldn't say it, but it is not an unusual thing to hear.

Also, sometimes people say "quote unquote" before the quote:

The politician described it as a - quote unquote - "lie".

Answer 6

A person would only actually say "quote" and "end quote" if they were trying to be clever or different.

They would just say:

I want a lollipop