Those are words that are inserted into the quote to make it read correctly when taken out of context.
"[You] come here."
When in fact, I point my finger at him, and said "come here".
This is a homework question, but one I have been curious about since I could pick up a book. Why are there brackets around random words in a quote?
For example on book reviews there are brackets around one or a few words and I can't understand why.
2 answers
http://www.esc.edu/htmlpages/writerold/menuq.htm
look at the section titled Adding information to a quote
look at the section titled Adding information to a quote
6 answers