Quotation marks in American English.

I get questions about the proper use of quotation marks all the time. Here are a couple of “for sure” uses.
Quotation marks are always placed outside periods or commas. There are no exceptions.
Examples:
“I thought I’d make sure that you know this rule,” said Liz.
He told me that he “got it.”
I can recite the poem “The Journey of the Magi.”
Do not use quotation marks if you are using an indirect quote:
She told me that she understood the rule.
Some “authorities,” Grammarly included, have said that “quotation marks always come in pairs.” This is incorrect. When a character speaks into a new paragraph, you do not put end quotes at the end of the paragraph. When the character stops speaking, however many paragraphs it takes, you indicate the stop by adding end quotes.
In American English, always start with double quotes. If you have a quote within a quote, use single quotes for the “inside” quote. For example, if I was speaking and I quoted a phrase from “The Journey of the Magi,” the text would look like this:
“I thought of Ted, and he reminded me of T. S. Eliot’s ‘sore-footed’ camels,” said Liz.
So, the rule to remember is simple: In American English, commas and periods are always placed inside quotation marks. Period.
If you’re using a colon or semicolon, put it outside the quotation marks. If you are using an exclamation point or question mark, then its placement can be either inside or outside the quotation marks, depending on whether the quotation includes that exclamation point or question mark.
Don’t lard up your writing with quotation marks for expressions. If you feel compelled, when writing, to make the “quote-unquote” gesture with your fingers, then that would be a good time to use quotation marks; otherwise, no.