Do I need permission to add a reference from Steinbecks book?
If it is in a literary sense then it is fine and you do not need permission. Novels are filled with references to other novels and literary references and works. Even the title of “of mice and men” is (as I am sure you know) lifted from the a Robert Burns poem. Of course if you are going to rip off the story line or use the characters then that will need permission. However if it is appropriate for your character to quote a line from the novel then that is fine, just as it would be fine to make a reference to the Bible, or Shakespeare or Keats or anyone else. This is a recognised literary phenomenen and well within what is accepted. Depending on how you handle it (and also on whatever phrase is more popular in the lit crit world at the time) This usage of another text is calle Allusion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allusion) or Intertextuality (http
