The phrase "almost quote" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a statement that is not an exact quotation but is close to the original wording.
Example: "In his speech, he made an almost quote from Shakespeare, paraphrasing the famous line about the quality of mercy."
Alternatives: "nearly a quote" or "close to a quote".
"The point I made, and I can almost quote it verbatim, is that there is nothing in the way Germany play, nothing in the way they approach the game, nothing in the system that they use, that we can't do.
"The point I made, and I can almost quote it verbatim, is that there is nothing in the way Germany play, nothing in the way they approach the game, nothing in the system that they use, that we can't do," he said.
"By definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Conventions Against Torture," Ms. Rice said, almost quoting Nixon's logic: "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal".
Since I had not read "The Rings of Saturn" (published in German in 1995 but not translated into English until 1998), I didn't know that he was almost quoting a passage from his own work, where, beautifully, he describes the trees, uprooted after the hurricane, lying on the ground "as if in a swoon".
It seems that El-Baradei almost quotes Camus when he says that "people must understand the link between bread to eat and democracy".
It is very clear that John McCain said -- and I'm almost quoting him -- that going into Iraq will be one of the best things we can do for America and for the world.
All of which you can imagine the Free Beacon, you know... making hay with, had they attempted to report out the story instead of publishing this raveled sleeve of almost-quotes and pretending they'd landed it.
Pluck almost any quote from Sanders's repertoire on economic and social justice and you can begin to understand his appeal.
Then they note that the Hispanic boom coincided with the collapse of the once-mighty California Republican Party after its leaders promoted harshly anti-immigrant laws in the 1990s.When politicians of the right talk about Latino voters, they almost invariably quote Ronald Reagan's remark to Lionel Sosa, a campaign adviser, that "Latinos are Republicans, they just don't know it yet".
In "Studio Still Life With Partially Disemboweled Deer" one is struck primarily by the abstract shapes, in metallic reds, of a broken window and a coffee can full of paintbrushes that is an almost direct quote of Jasper Johns's 1960 painted bronze sculpture of a similarly employed Savarin coffee can.
He gave an almost identical quote to the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago.
