How to Write a Press Release Quote

A press release quote exists to say something a plain statement of fact cannot: intent, reaction, or judgment. It gives a reporter a line they can use directly, attributed to a named person, instead of paraphrasing a claim the company is making about itself.

What a quote is for

The body of a release states facts: what happened, when, how much. A quote adds the human layer around those facts, the parts that need a voice to sound credible: why the company did this, what it means for customers, how it feels to reach this point. A quote that only restates the headline in first person, such as “we are thrilled to launch this important new product,” wastes the one place in the release where a person, not a company, gets to speak.

Who should be quoted

Usually one person tied closely to the news: the founder or chief executive for company-wide news, the person who led the project for a launch, a partner or investor when the news is a deal, or a customer when the story is about impact. Two quotes work well when two parties are involved, such as an acquisition or a partnership, with one from each side. More than two quotes in a short release usually means nobody’s quote is doing enough work.

How to write one that sounds like a person

Read the quote aloud. If it sounds like a paragraph of marketing copy with quotation marks around it, it is not a quote yet. A few habits help: use plain words the person would actually say, keep it to one or two sentences, and give it a specific point rather than a general feeling. Draft it, then read it back as if the person is correcting a word that does not sound like them.

Illustration, from a fictional company: instead of “we are excited to bring this innovative solution to market and delight our customers,” try “retailers have been asking us for this for two years, so we built it around how they actually work,” attributed to a Brightloop product lead. The second version names a reason and a source of the idea; the first names nothing that could not apply to any product from any company.

Attribution style

Attribute a quote with the full name and exact title on first use: “said Priya Anand, chief executive of Brightloop.” Use “said,” not a synonym like “exclaimed” or “shared,” which draws attention to the verb instead of the words. Place the attribution after the first sentence of a two-sentence quote rather than after both, so the reader knows who is speaking before they finish the thought. See the format guide for where the quote sits inside the release, and the AP style guide for punctuation around quoted material.

Common failures

A few problems repeat across releases. Quotes that could be swapped between two unrelated companies without anyone noticing are not adding anything specific. Quotes that repeat a number already stated in the lead waste the space. Quotes that run four sentences long tend to lose their point halfway through. And a quote attributed only to a title, with no name, such as “said a company spokesperson,” reads as if no one wanted to put their name on the sentence, which can make the whole release feel less accountable. See how these failures play out in the bad examples on this site, and how a working quote reads in the best examples.

A short checklist before you send it

Before a release goes out, read the quote on its own, away from the rest of the text. It should make a specific point, sound like a person rather than a press office, name who is speaking and why they are the right person to say it, and add something the facts around it did not already cover. If it fails any of those, it is worth another draft before the release goes to anyone outside the company.