Commas and Quotation Marks
A comma can be used before a quotation after words like "He said", "She whispered", "It stated", etc.
Examples:
 The janitor
pointed at the photograph and said, "That's me in the '60s."
Bessie stretched across my plate and grunted, "salt...salt and pepper".
The sign states, "Animals drive very slowly".
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COMMAS FOR SHORT QUOTATIONS
There are guidelines (fast becoming outdated) which state that only a quotation of six words or fewer should be introduced with a comma. Longer quotations should be introduced with a colon. For example:
 The janitor said: "See the long-haired one? That's me in the '60s."
(This is covered more in the lesson Quotation
Marks.)
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