It can help to think of speech as an action. People don't speak for no reason!
Here’s a simple speech action: greeting someone.
I said, “Hi, Hailey Jo.”
There are a million ways in which we greet each other with speech.
“There you are, Gobgap!” said the tiger.
“Good evening customers,” a tinny voice said over the store’s PA.
True dat. Dialogue punctuation can be finicky.
Here's a handy guide (or you can just google for dialogue punctuation—everyone has the same questions!)
