Welcome to our collection of insightful quotes on interviewing. Whether you’re preparing for a job interview, conducting research, or simply seeking inspiration, the art of interviewing is a skill worth mastering. Interviews serve as windows into the minds and experiences of individuals, offering valuable perspectives and profound insights.
Interviewing is both an art and a science a delicate balance of asking the right questions, actively listening, and interpreting responses. It requires empathy, curiosity, and adaptability to truly uncover the essence of a person’s thoughts and experiences. From the probing questions of journalists to the structured inquiries of job recruiters, interviews play a pivotal role in communication and understanding.
Below, you’ll find a curated selection of quotes from various perspectives on the art of interviewing. Whether you’re looking to gain wisdom from seasoned professionals or simply seeking motivation, these quotes offer a glimpse into the nuanced world of interviews. Feel free to utilize them as inspiration for your own endeavors whether you choose to display them on an image, enhance them with stylish fonts, or simply reflect on their wisdom.
Interviewing Rei Kawakubo in Tokyo and John Galliano in Paris, both for ‘Pop’ magazine, were huge for me, not just in learning about fashion and writing but about how little desire I had to be a critic/reporter/journalist/commentator so much as a kind of travel diarist. Tavi Gevinson
Interviewing people is hard. Sam Darnold
I started reading and talking and interviewing nutritionists and a thread was starting to form for me which is – a protein digests in a different rate of speed than a carbohydrate. Suzanne Somers
People like me, when we’re interviewing, we’re not going back to our desktop to fill out a recruiting form. If I can quickly submit my evaluation through an iPhone or an iPad, that makes me a lot more productive. Aneel Bhusri
No longer do companies study consumers’ psyches only by asking people what they think about technology and how they use it. Now they conduct observational research, dispatching anthropologists to employ their ethnographic skills by interviewing, watching and videotaping consumers in their natural habitats. Katie Hafner
I don’t mind when people are telling me about their 1971 Firebird, but it’s the same thing as people telling me about their car or something. It’s fine if you have an interest. By talking with me, though, you could be interviewing a novelist about guitars. It’s the same thing, except I don’t write that well either. Jonny Greenwood
I love researching, I love interviewing. Quiara Alegria Hudes
The candidate who knows the space and is really interested in a company rather than just applying for a job will be able to engage with everyone who’s interviewing him or her with interesting questions at the right level. David Baszucki
Through all of this lovely interviewing, and nice things people say, and the rest of it, I have learned that I am an actor. That is my profession. That is my job. That is how I make a living. So I am just out there making a living. Melissa Leo
I shoot for ‘Extra’ three times a week, and that’s great for Las Vegas, too. In addition to interviewing stars who are here for shows, parties and premieres, I’ll also get peoples’ reactions to different news items and topical gossip. Holly Madison
Kathy Dewar, my high-school English teacher, introduced me to journalism. From the moment I wrote my first article for the student paper, I convinced myself that having my name in print – writing in English, interviewing Americans – validated my presence here. Jose Antonio Vargas
When I graduated from UCLA, I actually started interviewing for banking jobs. But at some point I realized a career in banking felt more like a continuation of school than a passion. Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss
I asked all of our recruiters to give me all resumes of prospective employees with their name, gender, place of origin, and age blacked out. This simple change shocked me, because I found myself interviewing different-looking candidates – even though I was 100% convinced that I was not being biased in my resume selection process. Eric Ries
I love interviewing people and getting them to talk about things they’ve never talk about. Shane Dawson
I volunteered at Ayuda, in the office, on a regular basis, and I did everything from fingerprinting and interviewing persons of Hispanic origin who entered the country without inspection and who were seeking work-authorization permits. Thomas Hardiman
Interviewing someone is very similar to preparing a character, isn’t it? You’re just asking questions: ‘Who is this person? Why did they make that choice? Why are they doing that?’ You’re being Sherlock Holmes. Felicity Jones
When you are interviewing someone, never let your camera person turn off the camera. The second you turn off the camera, they’ll say the magic thing that you’d been looking for the whole interview. People want to relax after the performance is done. Don’t be afraid of awkward silence. That is your friend. Marshall Curry
When I turned 50, I truly felt I was too old to work in Silicon Valley. No one said anything to my face, but when you can be the mother of some of the people you’re interviewing with, that says it all. Julie Wainwright
Interviewing people is pretty natural for me. Nina Blackwood
But I really like hosting, I think it’s a strength of mine. It allows me to improvise, and I love the spontaneity of that, and I think I’m funny behind the desk when interviewing someone. Garry Shandling
Whenever television cameras are interviewing people in their homes, I tend to look over their shoulders and have a good snoop at their living rooms. I am always astonished at how clean they all look, with nothing out of place or unnecessary or dropped down any old how. Craig Brown
If we’re interviewing someone and they really care about having a certain title, I usually think, ‘Let’s hire someone else.’ You want someone who will say, ‘I truly believe in the company’s future. I want to own part of this company. I believe I can grow its value.’ Eric Yuan
My interviewing style and my approach to things is that, yes, it’s okay to be sincere; it’s okay to be yourself; it’s okay to be real. Eddie Trunk
I was interviewing Daniel Craig and Naomie Harris for a Bond film a few years ago, and the moment I sat down, my dress ripped. No more bodycon numbers for me. I had to walk out of the room backwards when I was done. Jameela Jamil
I have the version of me where I’m interviewing someone, where I definitely am the straight man, and I like to show a lot of respect to my guest and let them take the reins. I don’t like to compete with my guests. I don’t like to be funnier than my guests or get into a ‘Who’s wackier?’ sort of thing. Tom Green
One of the great challenges of being a modern historian is interviewing multiple people who were all there for something, some event. No one’s version matches up 100% with other people’s, even if it’s three or four people on a conference call. David Garrow
In 2009, I served as AARP’s Ambassador of Caregiving. With a producer and cameraman, I traveled the country for months, interviewing hundreds of caregivers. Gail Sheehy
We’re trying to create one holistic beauty experience where you can be inspired by other women, both the people we’re interviewing and the community contributing to the conversation. Emily Weiss
I’ve had the privilege of meeting and/or interviewing most of the top metal and hard rock artists at various points in my career and sharing their stories and music with millions of fans on air through TV and radio. Eddie Trunk
My policy with interviewing is I’m not there to teach the people I’m across from a lesson. Dave Rubin
If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I’d figure her career was as dead as mine! Tom T. Hall
I wasn’t supposed to be walking with Mark Zuckerberg. I wasn’t supposed to be interviewing Romney’s sons. Why was I doing it? Because I wanted to survive. I wanted to live. I wanted to earn what it means to be an American. Jose Antonio Vargas
I am really bad at actually interviewing people. Graham Norton
I thought I was going to do some cult, cool, late-night interviewing thing on BBC2. But everyone kept saying: ‘No, Michael, you’re teatime, you’re not cool.’ Michael McIntyre
In my own experience, when we have an open directing assignment of any kind, not just the big films, I would say it is the exception, not the rule, that there is a woman in the group of directors that we are interviewing. I think that’s from the pool being so small. Donna Langley
When I was interviewing Hillary Clinton, I knew when I’d ask her something that she wasn’t going to give me the complete truth because she would break eye contact with me. Amanda de Cadenet
When you are interviewing refugees, each person you talk to has a different story that could come from a horror movie. So many people talk about seeing their families get murdered before their eyes. Then I go to Central Park, and people are talking about their third divorce and paying tuition. Brandon Stanton
People do more important jobs than acting in film that should be recognised, but for some reason it’s big money, so people are elevated in status. If I was a bus driver, I’m sure you wouldn’t be interviewing me. Adam Garcia
Enough people write about me every day without even interviewing me. Meryl Streep
The excitement for me lies not so much in interviewing the hard-to-get famous person, but the person whom you are about to discover. You know, like maybe the character actors who are just coming into their own and you’re realizing how great they are. Terry Gross
I try to see interviewing as performance art, and just take it as it comes. Liz Phair
As a young man… you don’t know anything about yourself. And add on to that, you’re on the cover of magazines. People are interviewing you about what you think. You feel like a real phony. Ethan Hawke
Because I come from the place of interviewing, I know how to answer a question giving you what you need to hear and not a minute more. Wendy Williams
And I managed to arrange to get some research support and to stay in Hong Kong for another year and a half, interviewing people coming out of China, both Westerners and Chinese. And that was my first real research study on thought reform or so-called brainwashing. Robert Jay Lifton
I am certainly more interested in interviewing than being interviewed. Sometimes you find yourself attacked from the start. Michael Palin
When I’m interviewing someone, I want to make sure that he thought enough to take care of himself – to dress appropriately and to groom himself properly. Bill Rancic
In September 2005, I was three things: the media blogger for ‘FishbowlNY,’ a maniacal Daily Show fan, and the only person to smuggle a tape recorder and camera into a big Magazine Publishers of America event featuring Jon Stewart interviewing five hotshot magazine editors in an unbelievable bloodbath. Rachel Sklar
I am interviewing people with a spirit of genuine interest and compassion, and therefore, the general tone of the site is one of genuine interest and compassion. The moment that culture changes, ‘Humans of New York’ is no longer viable. Brandon Stanton
The challenge of directing and interviewing helped me with confidence, and I learnt so much. If I hadn’t had the brain hemorrhage, I might never have done it. Maryam D’Abo
Jane Fonda was at the top of my list of women to meet and the only time I felt nervous about interviewing someone. She is one of the most dynamic women I have ever had the honor of talking to. Amanda de Cadenet
I learned that I never really know the true story of my guests’ lives, that I have to content myself with knowing that when I’m interviewing somebody, I’m getting a combination of fact and truth and self-mythology and self-delusion and selective memory and faulty memory. Terry Gross
I did my degree in journalism, and I then went on to being a games journalist, reviewing and previewing games and writing about the industry, visiting and interviewing developers. Rhianna Pratchett
Interviewing someone is a very proactive process and requires taking a lot of agency into your own hands to get past people’s general normal self-preservation mode. Brandon Stanton
I know when I was an assistant coach and I started interviewing for head coaching jobs, I actually lost out on many jobs, several jobs, and the complaint that I got was, ‘Well, he doesn’t fit the mold of a head coach. He doesn’t look the part. He’s not gonna jump up and down. He’s not going to scream.’ Tony Dungy
Weight is just not a hot button. In fact, during my life, it probably should have been on my radar screen a bit more. I look back at work photos and am shocked. Was I eating the people I was interviewing?! Good Lord, I was big. Hoda Kotb
I’ve had some pretty rough interviews. And it’s funny when people are interviewing you, and they sort of don’t really understand what you do, and they kind of insult you. Vanessa Bayer
To make a film like ‘The Grandmaster,’ I know I’m not going to make just a standard kung-fu film; it’s not going to be just tricks or like wire works. So I spent seven years on the road interviewing different schools and a lot of real grandmasters from Chinese martial arts. Wong Kar-wai
When you are interviewing someone, don’t just write down what he says. Ask yourself: Does this guy remind you of someone? What does the room feel like? Notice smells, voice inflection, neighborhoods you pass through. Be a cinematographer. Gene Weingarten
If there is one way that I would sum up what the 2016 election was on cable news, it was world-class journalists interviewing morons. Jon Lovett
Interviewing is fun. You get to learn things about people other than yourself. When you’re being interviewed, you’re talking about things you’ve already lived. I’ve already done that, so what fun is that? Pat Smear
As a professional journalist, I’ve been interviewing people for almost thirty years. And the one thing I’ve learned from all those interviews is that I am always going to be surprised. Hector Tobar
When you consider how many people are really not good at communication in general and interviewing in specific, it’s no wonder that many companies struggle to build high-quality partnerships – or even staffs. Michael Gerber
I like making things. I enjoy putting words and images on a blank space. There should be joy in the writing itself because parts of it are so challenging and lonesome. I take great pleasure in reading, researching, and interviewing. I enjoy forming my sentences and revising them to make them clean. Min Jin Lee
I remember interviewing someone I actually felt bad for, and therefore didn’t want to take an ironic stance against him. It actually turned out to be a really funny piece. Rob Corddry
Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read. Frank Zappa
I wrote ’33 Men’ in eight weeks. Not only was it a combination of simultaneously writing and interviewing, but as I dug deeper into the miners’ story, I found the key to their success was the ability to place their individuality on the back burner and bring forward the sense of a collective group responsibility. Jonathan Franklin
Working as a journalist, I was always tempted to lie. I felt I could do dialogue better than the person I was interviewing. I felt I could lie better than Nixon and be more concise than some random person I was covering. Tim O’Brien
When you’re interviewing someone, you’re in control. When you’re being interviewed, you think you’re in control, but you’re not. Barbara Walters
One of the difficulties about interviewing people in Rwanda is that the country is trying to get on with ordinary life and some people just don’t want to get involved in this. Tony Greig
I was interviewing an elder, Chief Fool’s Crow, who was the ceremonial chief. He was 103 years old. I was getting his information on the history of Lakota horses. He told me the story of Hidalgo and Frank Hopkins. John Fusco
So many of us can recall growing up with Gene Okerlund as the voice of our childhoods while interviewing the likes of Andre The Giant, Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, Sting, and others. Natalya Neidhart
My kids are really dope. I was just at home in Chicago, and my daughter Brittany was interviewing me. It was like I was on ‘Oprah.’ Lil Rel Howery
I don’t get nervous when I’m interviewing someone on film – it can be cut, and we can do it again. It is quite nerve-racking doing things live. Melvyn Bragg
It must be hard interviewing actors. Daniel Day-Lewis
Interviewing is not a democratic art. Andrew O’Hagan
Confidence has a lot to do with interviewing – that, and timing. Michael Parkinson
Most of the people interviewing me are far more square than me. I think it’s the ET thing. I’m sitting there, my hair is combed, and I’m in a suit. John Tesh
I used to have a voice because I was interviewing people and writing, but as soon as I got swept up in the fashion world, I was just a pretty girl at a party wearing a pretty dress. Alexa Chung
By interviewing at least one veteran, you can preserve memories that otherwise might be lost. My uncle was a downed fighter pilot and P.O.W. in World War II, and I am looking forward to recording his story for inclusion in the project. Spencer Bachus
Interviewing Hugh McIlvanney, I got to read lots of his stuff again. I’m a big fan of his writing. Sebastian Coe
A journalist asked this to my father. He spent a day with me and interviewing my friends/colleagues and didn’t understand how I could be the one that created 4chan and, as he put it, ‘couldn’t understand how to fit the square peg into a round hole.’ The best way I have of describing it is, ‘I didn’t define it, and it doesn’t define me.’ Christopher Poole
So often on CNN, there’s a world-class journalist interviewing campaign rejects and ideologues and silly, craven people who do not care about informing people, that aren’t there to help people understand what’s going on in the news. Jon Lovett
I have long argued that no one should be allowed to write opinion without spending years as a reporter – nothing like interviewing all four eyewitnesses to an automobile accident and then trying to write an accurate account of what happened. Molly Ivins
The interviews have been a little tough due to the fact that we’re interviewing dogs. We see a lot of contestants licking themselves, but we’re used to that from covering the Grammys. Melissa Rivers
I know Peter Jackson a tiny-tiny bit from interviewing him about the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies over the years. When I was visiting the set of ‘The Return of the King,’ he let me be an extra so I could see filmmaking from a different perspective. I was a Rohan soldier. Jeff Giles
The term ‘perjury trap’ means interviewing someone for no underlying crime and no other purpose except with the hope that the person forgets something, or another witness remembers things differently. Either way, somebody gets charged with perjury. Michael Caputo
At the Human Rights Foundation, I love being able to drive an interview and value-connecting with someone I’m interviewing so that they feel comfortable enough to open up and share their story with me. Elizabeth Chambers
I always spend time exploring the customs and attitudes of the countries I’m using for locations, and interviewing the people who live there. I’ve visited over 90 countries thus far. Sidney Sheldon
It doesn’t matter if I go on CBS, PBS or Fox. Whoever is interviewing me is going to want to create some conflict in the story, or it’s not interesting. That’s just the way the news is. Mark McKinnon
I believe it’s easier to be an actor. Somehow, interviewing seems to be intrusive on people’s lives. Wayne Rogers
If I’m interviewing someone I need to know everything about them – I do these massive spider diagrams. Everything under different categories, and certain questions in other categories. Cat Deeley
I like doing the readings and the autographing, but the interviewing gets a little tedious because you get asked the same questions every day and sometimes three or four times a day. Terry McMillan
Which is worse – being a has-been or being the guy interviewing a has-been? Bobcat Goldthwait
I’d never be tied down for five years interviewing TV personalities. Chevy Chase
I would go to radio stations and they were supposed to be interviewing me and playing my record and they would say, We’re playing too many women right now, we can’t play your record. Kristin Hersh
I spent a lot of time with the LAPD. I spent six weeks training, weapons training, ride-alongs, surveillance, interviewing them, in all different departments and divisions. Ramon Rodriguez
I was fortunate that I was at newspapers for eight years, where I wrote at least five or six stories every week. You get used to interviewing lots of different people about a lot of different things. And they aren’t things you know about until you do the story. Chuck Klosterman
When I was there, something clicked in my head; I found myself interviewing people, searching out facts and figures. Later on I became much more self-conscious of what I was doing. Joe Sacco
My basic approach to interviewing is to ask the basic questions that might even sound naive, or not intellectual. Sometimes when you ask the simple questions like ‘Who are you?’ or ‘What do you do?’ you learn the most. Brian Lamb
Daniel Goleman has proven that two-thirds of the success in business is based upon our Emotional Intelligence as opposed to our IQ or our level of experience. As we look for the next crop of future CEOs, maybe it’s time for America’s corporations to start interviewing grads from the psychology master’s programs rather than the M.B.A. programs. Chip Conley