Think about the effect you want your epigraph to have. You may be trying to add a sense of grandeur or erudition, foreshadow an important theme in the story or playfully signal your reader not to take the story too seriously.
Choose an appropriate quotation. You may already have chosen a favorite author or work that you can browse for inspiration, or even a handful of favorite quotations to pick from. If not, use a dictionary of quotations to find ideas arranged topically. You may also choose to create a fictional epigraph by writing your own quote from a person or work that does not exist, such as a famous person in the world of your story.
Look up the quotation you intend to use in the original work or a reliable reference work to verify that you have the wording exactly right.
Place the epigraph in italics, single spaced, a double space below the story title or chapter heading. Indent it 1 inch more than the body text on both margins. Do not use quotation marks.
Cite the source of the epigraph on the line below it on the right side of the text. In the citation line, type a double hyphen or em-dash and the name of the person quoted in Roman (non-italic) type. If you are quoting a printed work, add a comma and the title of the work in italics.