'opening quotation' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to introduce a quotation or a dialogue. For example: "Opening quotation," he said, "I think this is the right way to start our conversation."
And, as the opening quotation shows, large private corporations are also a fertile breeding ground for this disease.
Then there is the opening quotation: a passage from Mary Shelley in which Dr. Frankenstein gazes upon his creation.
"I don't know if I want to be a dancer when I grow up — or if I want to do something with horses," her opening quotation reads.
An opening quotation from Jacques Lacan makes you think you're headed for deep waters, when all that's in store is a frolic in the shallows.
The opening quotation of Oliver Stone's movie "Platoon" also would remain relatively unscathed — "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth" would be "Rejoice, young man, in your youth".
A number of grammatically savvy readers wrote to me about the opening quotation in the column from Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor: "I look forward to you trashing me".
FRANCOIS RECANATI Open Quotation Revisited.
L. 112 141, § 112002(b)(2), struck out open quotation marks and duplicate subpar.
In an article that by chance was published on Sept. 11, 2001, The New York Times wrote about Mr. Ayers and his just-published memoir, "Fugitive Days," opening with a quotation from the author: "I don't regret setting bombs.
By opening with a quotation from the Rimbaud poem "The Drunken Boat," with its hallucinatory visions of being lost at sea, "The Limits of Control" even picks up where "Dead Man" left off, with Johnny Depp's character being pushed out to sea and into the spirit world.
It opens with quotations from correspondence between Poitras and a new source who identifies himself only as Citizenfour.
