Song lyrics, a stanza of poetry, two sentences from a novel, an epigraph, a brand name in dialogue: each follows different rules. Pick what you want to quote, answer a few questions, and get a verdict that shows the exact source quotes it rests on. US copyright law only.
What do you want to quote in your book? Pick a category; each has its own rules, and every verdict shows the sources it rests on. US copyright law only.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules shown are for works published in the United States; unpublished works, sound recordings and foreign works follow different rules. When money or reputation is on the line, consult a publishing attorney.
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The US Copyright Office is blunt about this: there is no formula under which a set number of words or lines is automatically safe to take. Fair use is a four-factor balancing test that courts apply case by case: the purpose of your use, the nature of the work you quote, how much of it you take, and what your use does to its market. That is why this wizard never says yes or no in the abstract; it walks the factors for your material and shows the sources.
Song lyrics are the category writers most often get wrong. Music publishers operate a formal licensing pipeline for reprinting lyrics in novels, textbooks and magazines, fees are set case by case rather than published, and refusals happen. Two clean escapes exist: quote a song old enough to be in thepublic domain, or name the song and artist instead, because titles and short phrases are not protected by copyright at all.
Every verdict in the wizard displays the verbatim source quotes it rests on: the fair use statute and the US Copyright Office's own fair use guidance, Copyright Office circulars on educational copying and on what copyright does not protect, the Cornell (Hirtle) public domain chart, the Authors Guild's fair use guidance for authors, SFWA's legal glossary, and a major music publisher's lyric licensing pages. Fetch dates and full provenance live in the tool's sources file, and none of it is legal advice.
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