Quotes within dialogue

I believe if you're using American English, you would write, "He would probably say, 'Don't worry, you'll lose nothing,' but I'll tell him, 'I already have nothing.'" The commas and periods always go inside the quotes.

However, if you're using British English, you would write, 'He would probably say, "Don't worry, you'll lose nothing", but I'll tell him, "I already have nothing".' The commas and periods may or may not go inside the quotes, depending on the original source material.

I find the specific illustration perfectly clear as it is, without any extra quotes.

MaxWriter said:

"He would probably say, don't worry, you'll lose nothing, but I'll tell him, I already have nothing."

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I would punctuate it thus:

"He would probably say, 'Don't worry, you'll lose nothing,' but I'll tell him, I already have nothing."

But if the first verb phrase is "would probably say," then the followup should be "I'd tell him," not "I'll tell him.

As is, it's clear enough once you've read the whole sentence, but it's not necessarily clear as you're first reading it where the thing he would hypothetically say ends. Quotation marks as StoryofWoe suggested are an easy way to solve that. Between "clear but could be clearer" and "clearer," you should choose the latter. (Unless there's a compelling reason otherwise, but quotation marks are cheap these days.)

guttersquid said:

I would punctuate it thus:

"He would probably say, 'Don't worry, you'll lose nothing,' but I'll tell him, I already have nothing."

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This is also a viable option. But if you leave the last clause as an indirect quote, you shouldn't precede it with a comma.

Surely this is reported (or prior reported) speech and not a quote? In which case you don't use quotes.

Usher said:

Surely this is reported (or prior reported) speech and not a quote? In which case you don't use quotes.

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Given that it's a hypothetical (he would probably say), it's not really reported speech, nor is it prior. That's my interpretation, anyway.

WWWalt said:

This is also a viable option. But if you leave the last clause as an indirect quote, you shouldn't precede it with a comma.

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You're right. I forgot to delete it during CUT and PASTE. My bad.

MaxWriter said:

If a character is quoting what they think someone will say, what punctuation do you use?
Example:

"He would probably say, don't worry, you'll lose nothing, but I'll tell him, I already have nothing."

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"He would probably say not to worry, that I'll lose nothing, but if he does, I'll tell him I already have nothing."