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| Guitar I bought in Ann Landers old office. |
I once heard Richard Bausch advice a young writer not to use song lyrics in a story. I thought this was odd advice, but what I didn't understand at the time was that Bausch was talking about copyright infringement. The music industry will pursue you aggressively if you quote a song lyric without permission. And they want you to pay for permission. Sometimes a lot.
And, you can't quote anything from My Fair Lady for any reason or for any amount of money. So if you want to write a novel about musicals, you'll have to forget about My Fair Lady. Steven Sondheim, on the other hand, is much more reasonable. (You can't quote a Madonna song either.)
To get permission you have to identify the copyright holder, which you can do by searching for the title or the performer on one of the following websites: BMI (http://www.bmi.com/licensing) or ASCAP https://www.ascap.com/Home/ace-title-search/index.aspx). Then you have to write to the company that holds the copyright and the company will quote you a price. But you have to send in the lyrics in the context of your story or novel, and you have to quote exactly.