David Carnes, Copyright Laws for Quotations.I don’t know if I was being unduly cautious when I removed most of the quotations from recent works from my book. I did find that when I asked for permission for the one quotation I kept that the publisher was happy to take my money to give permission.
Elizabeth Rayne. How Long Can a Sample Be Before You Need Copyright Permission?You may hear that if you use fewer than [some number such as 300] words, you don’t need permission to quote someone else’s work. According to this article, that is a fiction. There are fair use exceptions, but those are harder to claim if you are making money from your book. The outcome of a copyright violation could be serious money damages.