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.
Ageism is particularly challenging for older adults, who are viewed by younger people as being "sickly, amnesiac, helpless, sluggish, hard of hearing, stubborn, frail, worthless, cloddish, and dependent on others" (Hu 1050).
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.
One participant shared her recollections of how her grandmother expressed her love for the grandchildren:
My grandmother would always take note of what foods we liked to eat, and would go to the market to buy these snacks and fruits for us, so that we could have them when we got home from school. She always took an interest in what TV shows and books and activities we were into, and would listen patiently as we went on and on about whatever happened at school that day. She did so many things around the house to make life easier for the family. (Liu 78)
MLA Handbook, 9th ed., pp. 253-58.