The Art of the Interview

Presenter: Dale Keiger

Dale’s been interviewing and writing for 36 years and figures he’s had between 1,800 and 2,000 stories published … so the man’s done a lot of interviews. Here are a few tips on The Art of the Interview from the Dale:

• Contrary to popular advice, an interview is NOT a conversation. “If your interview is a conversation,” he says, “you’re talking to much. Your job is not to talk. It’s to listen.”

• A good interview is NOT a seduction. The definition of seduction is progress toward a preconceived end. You’re not going to learn new or surprising things this way. You want to let the interview take its own direction.

• A good interview gets you the answers to questions you had not thought to ask before you started.

• Listen.

• A request for an explanation does not make the interviewer sound unintelligent or ill-prepared, it reveals a deep curiosity, and in turn, gets the subject to talk more. A lack of preparation—not knowledge—reveals a lack of interest.

• And speaking of preparation … You must prep and research, and it’s a good idea to make a list of questions and follow-up questions. Then, he suggests, you should leave that list in your office. “If you walk [into an interview] with a list of questions,” he says, “you’re scripting the interview. You’ll feel like you need to stay on script if [the interview] moves in a different direction.” Over-preparation can lead to a stale interview. Remember, you can always go back later to ask questions you may have missed or forgotten.

• This may seem counterintuitive, but as an interviewer, you are not after answers. You are after stories. People read stories. “If you are not telling stories,” he says, “you are not being read.” We arrange our lives in stories, so get your subject to tell you theirs.

• There’s a lot of hype about the mystery of establishing a rapport with your subject. Here’s the secret, straight from Dale: “Ask a short question, then shut up and listen.” People cannot resist talking about themselves and their passions. “The problem,” he says, “is not getting them to talk. It’s getting them to shut up.”