Quotations

The <blockquote> tag is used to create an indented block of text within a page. (Unlike the <cite> tag, which highlights small quotes, <blockquote> is used for longer quotations that shouldn't be nested inside other paragraphs.) For example, the Macbeth soliloquy I used in the example for line breaks would have worked better as a <blockquote> than as a simple paragraph. Here's an input example:

<blockquote> "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening grew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."---Edgar Allen Poe </blockquote>

As with paragraphs, you can split lines in a <blockquote> using the line break tag, <br>. The following input example shows an example of this use:

Input

<blockquote> Guns aren't lawful, <br /> nooses give.<br /> gas smells awful.<br /> You might as well live.<br /> ---Dorothy Parker </blockquote>

Figure 6.12 shows how the preceding input example appears in a browser.

Output

Figure 6.12. A block quotation.

Note

The <blockquote> tag is often used not to set off quotations within text, but rather to create margins on both sides of a page in order to make it more readable. This technique works, but strictly speaking, it's a misuse of the tag. These days, you should control margins with Cascading Style Sheets, as explained in Lesson 9, "Creating Layouts with CSS."