Here's what you're looking for: print "Listen @{[ f($x) ]}, I'll call the organ bank if you don't stop"; The @{} gets you interpolation, and the [ ] creates an array ref that is dereferenced by @{}.

You can also use a scalar ref, but it doesn't look quite as nice: print "Listen ${\( f($x) )}, I'll call the organ bank if you don't stop"; Another nice way to get interpolation is with MJD's Interpolation module, which uses a tied hash that returns the key: print "Listen $P{ f($x) }, I'll call the organ bank if you don't stop"; The nice thing about this module is that the tied hash can do formatting on the key before returning it, like adding commas to numbers.