I was wondering how strict the guideline of "not copying material from the original text" in the "interesting information" section is.

I'm trying to put together a quiz about a character in a book; the character mostly appears in flashback scenes, as he was a teacher of the main character. The format I've been writing most of my questions in has been along the lines of "according to [character's name]", with either a multiple choice or yes/no answer. For the "interesting text", I've been putting in the quote from the character applicable to the question just asked.

This clearly doesn't follow the guideline about not copying from the text, but would it be acceptable in this case since the quotes are illustrating what the character said about the question at hand?

For what it's worth, the book is Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, and the character is his high school teacher, Mr. Dubois.

Quotations from the book are quite acceptable in Literature. However, we would also expect to see a couple of sentences of information in your own words making clear the significance of the subject matter of the question in the book - what does it show us about the character (either the one who made the statement, or the subject of the quiz, or their relationship), or how does it help develop the plot?

Thank you for the quick response, and especially for the clarification of what you're looking for.

I guess I need to add some lines in my own words. It's not that I'm lazy (well, not JUST that), but I was trying to keep from introducing my own biases into what can be some controversial text. Heinlein really needs some more representation in the "Authors H-K" Team Heroes game, though, so I'll persevere.

Just to add, this works across the board in categories. Sometimes the perfect quote can really be good support for Interesting Information, whether it be from a movie, book, TV show, video game, or famous person (or, heck, from a scholarly article). We do, however, expect something original in there as well. We want these to be YOUR quizzes, and not someone else's.

Song lyrics, too.

The part in your own words can be putting it in context - what was happening when they said this, or how the quote has resonance later in the book. If you stick to the facts, your personal bias isn't too much of a problem.

And, hey, part of why good quizzes are good is that we get a real feeling of the person who wrote them. It's OK to let who you are bleed through a little.

Although I'm not an editor, I can add that some of my quizzes have been inspired by my personal translations of lyrics. At least one more of the sort will follow.

I'm also contemplating a quiz on non-English poetry (of course in quotes), accompanied by my own translations.