For quotations running four lines or less in your paper, keep the quotation in line with your text and enclose the text in double quotation marks. Quotes within quotes should be enclosed in single quotation marks. Your in-text citation should follow the quotation and come before any other punctuation.
MLA Handbook, 9th ed., pp. 253-58.
Quotations that run over four lines should be separated from your text by starting a new line and indenting all lines of the quotation one half inch from the left margin. You do not need to use double quotation marks for long quotations. Punctuation at the end of a long quotation is placed before the parentheses of the in-text citation.
MLA Handbook, 9th ed., pp. 253-58.