An epigraph is a short quotation placed at the beginning of a book, a part, or a chapter, set apart typographically from the text and from ordinary quotations. The Chicago Manual of Style's editors define it as "a brief quotation placed at the beginning of a book or at the head of a chapter, article, story, or other work."
Two things about epigraphs are widely got wrong: where it goes, because the American and British authorities disagree, and whether you need permission, because you almost certainly do.
Permission Is the Part That Matters
This is the section to read even if you skip the rest, because getting it wrong is expensive rather than merely untidy.
An epigraph is quotation for decoration rather than commentary, which is exactly the use fair use protects least. The Association of University Presses states it directly:
"A quotation for purposes other than scholarship, comment, or criticism, epigraphs are the most notable example of this, may not be considered 'fair use' no matter how short the quotation."
Yale University Press gives the working rule, and it is blunt on song lyrics:
"Epigraphs require permission unless the material is in the public domain or qualifies as fair use. If you are asserting fair use for an epigraph, the epigraph must be sufficiently tied to the text that follows the epigraph... If an epigraph is being used for purely decorative purposes such as for setting the tone or is not referenced within or clearly connected to the text, then you should rewrite the text to make the connection clear, move the quoted material to the main text, remove it altogether or clear the appropriate permission."
"Any quote of any length, if it is used without comment as an epigraph, requires permission."
And on poetry: "it is generally recommended that you secure permission for more than two lines of a short poem (unless the poem is only two lines long) or more than a stanza from a long one."
There is no safe word count. Princeton University Press is explicit: "There is no formula to ensure that a predetermined percentage or amount of a work may be used without permission."
The practical rule for a novelist: use public domain material, or your own words, or clear permission. Song lyrics are the single riskiest category and the most commonly used. A line of a pop song at the head of each chapter is the classic way to make a book unpublishable without a permissions budget.
Where It Goes: The Authorities Disagree
This is a genuine conflict, and either answer is defensible depending on which side of the Atlantic you publish.
Chicago places it early, sixth in the front matter, between the dedication and the contents page. Its editors describe the rule as: "an epigraph is usually placed on the first available page after the copyright page or, if there's a dedication on that page, on the page after that."
New Hart's Rules places it last, immediately before the text begins:
"An epigraph relating to the entire volume is placed on a new page, preferably a recto, immediately before the text or in another prominent position within the prelims."
Hart's own list of prelims bears this out: the epigraph is the final item, after the contents, the lists of illustrations, and the note to the reader.
So a whole-book epigraph goes near the front in a Chicago-styled book and at the end of the prelims in a British one. Pick one convention and be consistent. What both agree on is that it sits on its own page, preferably a right-hand one, and that a chapter epigraph goes at the head of its chapter or on the facing verso.
New Hart's Rules adds the consistency rule: "The use of epigraphs and their positioning must be consistent throughout the work."
How to Set It
No quotation marks. The Chicago Q&A: it "may be set off like a block quote, without quotation marks, and with the author's name immediately following." The typographic separation does the work quotation marks would.
The source line is brief. New Hart's Rules: sources are "usually ranged right under the quotation. The author's name and the title and date of the work are usually sufficient: further details are not normally included because readers are not expected to want to verify the quotation."
No footnotes. Chicago "discourages the practice of attaching notes to epigraphs and other display matter." If a quotation needs a citation, it is not functioning as an epigraph.
Centring is not a rule. The Chicago Q&A is worth quoting because so much advice asserts otherwise: "The position of an epigraph is normally decided by a graphic designer as part of a coherent design for the book as a whole... Centering is only one of many options."
No running head or page number. New Hart's Rules omits running heads from "any section of the prelims that has no section heading (half-title, title, and imprint pages, the dedication and epigraph)". The page still counts in the sequence, it just does not print its folio. See what is a folio in book printing.
There is one more consequence of using quoted material. New Hart's Rules recommends listing copyright holders separately, in a section headed "Copyright acknowledgements" distinct from your personal thanks, and it names epigraphs as the paradigm case for it.
What Deckle Does
Deckle has an Epigraph document type in the Front Matter menu, alongside Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Foreword, Preface and Table of Contents.
Its default content is already structured correctly for the conventions above: a blockquote for the quotation, followed by an attribution block for the source line rather than a plain paragraph. That distinction matters, because the Styler's attribution alignment control targets the attribution block specifically, so you can range the source right, as New Hart's Rules describes, without touching the quotation.
Placement is yours, since export order follows Binder order. Put it after the dedication for Chicago's convention, or last in the front matter for the British one.
Being front matter, it takes roman numerals when restart numbering at Chapter One is on, and Deckle suppresses the running header on it, matching the rule above.
For chapter-level epigraphs, use a blockquote and attribution block at the head of the chapter rather than a separate document.
For the neighbouring elements, see dedication vs epigraph vs acknowledgements and what is front matter in a book.
Common Mistakes
- Using song lyrics. The riskiest category, and permission is required for any length used as an epigraph.
- Assuming short means fair use. Not for epigraphs, per the Association of University Presses.
- Adding quotation marks. The display treatment replaces them.
- Footnoting the source. Chicago discourages notes on display matter.
- Mixing placements. Whole-book epigraphs at the front and chapter epigraphs facing versos is fine; inconsistency within a level is not.
- Leaving permissions to the end. Clearance takes weeks and can force a rewrite.
FAQ
Q: Do I need permission for an epigraph? A: Unless it is public domain, almost certainly. Decorative quotation is the weakest fair use case.
Q: Where exactly does it go? A: Chicago says after the dedication. New Hart's Rules says last in the prelims. Both are correct conventions.
Q: Should it be centred? A: Not necessarily. Chicago calls centring one option among many, decided by the designer.
Q: How do I credit the source? A: Author, title and date, ranged right beneath the quotation. No fuller citation.
Q: Can every chapter have one? A: Yes, provided the treatment is consistent and the permissions are cleared.