Quote in a book.

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February 23, 2025
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MTI,

Greetings from San Francisco!
Exploring your website, I see lots of information about rights and permissions for a company or school to put on “Fiddler on the Roof”, but not about quoting a few lyrics in a book.

I’m asking a bit in advance (a few years away). This will be for an illustrated book (either self-published or by a larger publisher, either in the USA or Italy).

The line would be:
“Tradition. Tradition!... You may ask, why did this tradition get started? I'll tell you why - I don't know. But it's a tradition.”

What would be the fee and rules for us of a line?

Thank you!
Stefan Salinas

1 Answer

Staff Answer
February 25, 2025

Hi! For permission to reprint lyrics, many of the major music publishers do not handle those requests directly but instead partner with Hal Leonard or Alfred Music. 

For Hal Leonard, go here: https://www.halleonard.com/licensing/pre_lyric_request.jsp

For Alfred Music, go here: https://www.alfred.com/types-license-requests/