The Media Interview

I would rather ride down the street on a camel nude in a snowstorm backwards than give what is sometimes called an in-depth interview
- Warren Beatty, quoted by Barbara Walters in a 1990 interview and acknowledged as being something he once said.

To suggest that a 15- or 20-minute interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong thing.
- CNN host and former prosecutor Nancy Grace
from an ABC news story about a mother who committed suicide one day after being interviewed by Grace about the mother’s missing two year old boy; family members blamed [...]

The Playmates I interviewed, almost without exception, said they were more nervous being interviewed than when they posed.
- Chip Rowe, the Playboy Advisor for Playboy magazine
in an email interview with Samantha Bornemann, published on the ShinyGun website in February 2002.

[Being interviewed is] an interesting time to see how I feel about things. A chance to get acquainted with my own views.
- Singer/Songwriter Rose Polenzani, August 2001
from an interview by Pam Huwig on WomanRock.com, originally published on Technodyke.com

[A television interview is] like a party. Dress up and look pleased to be there.
- Quentin Crisp in Dusty Answers - an unpublished (as of 2006) book of essays.

…media interviews are like buses. I wait 3 months and then 3 come along at once!
- blogger on Brighton’s Best Pubs

It is not sufficient to know what one ought to say, but one must also know how to say it.
- Aristotle, The Rhetoric

My opposition [to interviews] lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.
- James Thurber
(no source as yet - will update when available)

If you’re looking for an “outspokesperson”, pop singer Pink may be perfect for your media tour:
You’re also known for being outspoken. Have you been warned about this?
At first, but now I’m a lost cause. They had me take etiquette classes and media training and it didn’t work out. I told them that the etiquette [...]

I don’t mind being interviewed any more than I mind Viennese waltzing - that is, my response will depend on the agility and grace and attitude and intelligence of the other person. Some do it well, some clumsily, some step on your toes by accident, and some aim for them.
- Margaret Atwood
quoted in The [...]