I know there are several schools of thoughts on this, and personally I prefer the first or third of the examples below. I'd be interested to know what others think

‘For once in my miserable life,’ he thought, ‘there’s something to look forward to.’

"For once in my miserable life," he thought, "there's something to look forward to."

For once in my miserable life, he thought, there's something to look forward to.

Thanks
Sandra

Well the " " versus '' is a US/UK difference, in books. (In mags UK default is " " as well.)

I prefer to keep " " for things which are actually said aloud. It's very misdirecting to "hear" something like this:

"I hate you to the ends of the earth and the end of time and I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth," she thought, but only said, "I love you."

But I know that some publisher's house style is "" for thoughts, so you may be stuck with it. Ditto thoughts in italics, which I also don't like, because I want italics for other things.

I have a theory - supported by lots of indirect but no direct evidence - that the thoughts-in-italics thing came about because writers don't know how to handle free indirect style properly, and nor do editors.

Emma

3rd version.
It's not dialogue so it doesn't need quotes, and I've seen enough thoughts-in-italics on Authonomy to know I would never buy a novel if that was a publisher's house style. Only time I've seen italics work has been in one of Terry Pratchett's novels where it represented dialogue conveyed telepathically.
Trust the reader to know it's the pov character's thoughts without needing to point it out via the formatting.

No quotes for thought, only for dialogue!

Thanks for your 'thoughts' on this. I'll leave it unpunctuated.

Cheers
Sandra

Sandra,

There is also option 4; which is to leave out the thought attribution and just put the thought itself into italics.

For once in my miserable life, something to look forward to.

I have to say I’m quite partial to this one, and always like reading a book where the author does this.

Cheers, Grinder

Thanks for that view Grinder.
Sandra

I tend to use the italics with no thought attribution, so I'm glad someone likes it!

Personally, I don't like seeing thoughts in quotes, it's not speach. Option 3 for me, please. Although at a push I think I could cope with option 4.