Automatically add quotes

Question

I would like to create a new environment which will behave similar to quote, but with quotes added. I tried something like this:

\newenvironment{newquote}{\itshape\color{blue!20!black!30!green}\begin{quote}“}{”\end{quote}}

But that produces space beetween quotes and text which I don't want.

Answer 1

I'd be tempted to look at the csquotes package to do what you want. However, for the matter in hand I suspect you are using input such as

\begin{newquote}
  He who plants a garden plants happiness.
\end{newquote}

which means there is a space added at the end of the line. Try

\newenvironment{newquote}
 {\itshape\color{blue!20!black!30!green}\begin{quote}“\ignorespaces}
 {\unskip”\end{quote}}

or add a % to kill the end of the line in your source:

\begin{newquote}%
  He who plants a garden plants happiness.%
\end{newquote}

Answer 2

Perhaps this is overkill. Some time ago I was looking for something simular. I wrote a small script that was able to show small quotes to introduce a chapter in a book I am writing. The code:

\newcommand{\chapterquote}[2]{
  \begin{figure*}[htb]
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
      \node[text width=12cm,anchor=center] (Q) at (0,0) {\Large\textit{#1}};
      \node[gray,anchor=north east] (Ql) at (Q.north west) {\Huge\textbf{``}};
      \node[gray,anchor=north west] (Qr) at (Q.south east) {\Huge\textbf{''}};
      \node[black!80,anchor=north east] (Qa) at (Qr.north west) {\small - #2};
    \end{tikzpicture}
  \end{figure*}
}

You will need the to use tikz package. As an example:

\chapterquote{To be, or not to be}{William Shakespeare}

This produces something like:

Feel free to experiment with this custom command. You can for instance modify the color and size.