Script Editors (sods)

You have to be careful when inserting a quote from a great writer in your work. I used a passage from "A View from the Bridge" in a play of mine but when I sent the play off to the BBC (it was turned down) I was told I should be aware that using others' words could infringe copyright - you are aloud to use only short passages (I don't know how long).
Another thing is that sometimes the passages you use are so good in comparision with the stuff you yourself have written, they make your words sound banal. This is true especially of using Shakesperean passages.
I wrote a play a long time ago and used a line of a Philip Larkin poem in it: a character quoted it to express his state of mind. "Why should I let this toad, Work, squat on my life."
Needless to say, when the play was duly returned (from ITV or BBC) the script editor wrote that the play was not something they were looking for at that present time (a sign, by the way, that they may be thinking of pinching the idea/story to use themselves) but thanks for sending it etc etc. Then - I knew it was coming - the bloke added "There is one very good line in your play though - the trouble is it's the one by Larkin."
The sod.