Copyright

DO NOT use song lyrics. Even very short recognisable extracts only a few words long, will be pounced on by Performing Rights and cost you a lot of money.

I know of one young lady who asked about using a single line from a 1970's rock song in one of her stories. They wanted £7K for that. Sad, but true.

'Fair use' generally applies to the written word which means you can use short extracts provided you quote the source, but it's always best to ask permission. I must admit, though, I used two characters from a famous historical author's work in a very short scene in my first story: a homage, if you like, because he's a favourite writer and it's a brilliant series of novels. I didn't ask permission beforehand, but did tell the author what I'd done.

Hi

I still think you'll most probably still have to reference the name of the author and title of work. As long as you put this down it should be ok.

I wish you luck on your short story :)