When putting dialogue into fiction, should you use double quotations or singular?

Double

Author’s discretion, really.

In general, I see double quotes used in American fiction and single in British. It’s just a matter of style. You’re free to go either way.

I seem to recall being taught that the double marks are standard, and the single marks are used to contain a quote within a quote: The girl said “My doll can talk. She smiled at me this morning and said ‘everything will be fine.’ ”

Yes, that’s how you handle a quote within a quote: you alternate double and single. But the outermost pair can be either double or single, depending on which style you’re following. The most important rule is consistency.

It also depends on the locale. Double quotes in the U.S. James Joyce used a dash. Cormac McCarthy uses nothing to set off dialogue.

And when I was young my mother called the use of a single quote mark as “British”. I don’t know if that is real or just my mother.

When writing French dialogue, use « guillemets ».