Commas with quotation (speech) marks

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A comma can be used before a quotation. (also covered in the lesson Quotation Marks)

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".

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There are guidelines (fast becoming outdated) which state that only a quotation of six words or fewer should be introduced with a comma.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.)

Associated lessons:

Colon or comma before quotation (speech) marks?
Three dots (ellipsis) in quotation (speech) marks
Punctuation inside or outside quotation (speech) marks?
Quotation (speech) marks for ships, plays, books, etc.
Double or single quotation (speech) marks?
Commas after a sentence introductions
Commas after a transitional phrase
Commas after interjections (yes, no, indeed)
Commas before conjunctions (and, or, but)
Commas for parenthesis
Commas in lists
Commas with a long subject
Commas with numbers
Commas with the vocative case
List of easily confused words