Glenn Danzig Quotes

The way I work, the interview never becomes larger than the person being interviewed.

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.

I'm not a go-in-for-the-kill kind of interviewer. It's a great thing to me, that kind of interviewer, but I'm not it. It doesn't play to my strengths at all. I like to interview people who are interested in telling their story and tell it as truthfully as they can.

If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening.

In Africa, listening is a guiding principle. It's a principle that's been lost in the constant chatter of the Western world, where no one seems to have the time or even the desire to listen to anyone else.

It's terribly important that you can criticise people's ideas without criticising them, and if they burst into tears, it means that you tend to hold back from getting at the absolute truth.

I've never interviewed anyone where I set out to try to persuade them to reveal something. Instead, it's about creating a space that allows someone to be authentic without judgment on my part.

The only thing I'm nervous about is talking to guests like human beings, because all of my interviews so far have been attacking people. I have a genuine concern about sitting across from an actor whose movies I obviously haven't seen.

If I can make one generalised statement, and generalised statements are never entirely true, nobody wants to be talked down to, kids included.

You better arm yourselves to answer your children's and grandchildren's questions... no matter what the question is... without being judgmental.

I found I wasn't asking good enough questions because I assumed I knew something. I would box them into a corner with a badly formed question, and they didn't know how to get out of it. Now, I let them take me through it step by step, and I listen.

My advice to all interviewers is: Shut up and listen. It's harder than it sounds.

There is a difference between listening and waiting for your turn to speak.

I try to be respectful of how other people think, I try to listen to what they're saying.

My job is to listen and to ask questions and to be respectful and win the trust of my subjects so that I can work my way into their memories and their point of view.

When I was young I used to listen to other people and to try and understand what they thought and where they were coming from. I listened and didn't speak.

Real answers need to be found in dialogue and interaction and, yes, our shared human condition. This means being open to one another instead of simply fighting to maintain a prescribed position.

A colleague once nicknamed me - half mocking - the 'magical stranger' because I get people to tell me things.

To do a really good interview, you have to be truly interested in the person.

Yeah, but I do call them back and follow up. Most people talk at overweight people, I talk with them.

If you engage people honestly, and you're willing to do the leg work, people will respond to that.

If a person says or does something that we consider offensive, our first obligation is to refuse to take offense and then communicate privately, honestly, and directly with that individual. Such an approach invites inspiration from the Holy Ghost and permits misperceptions to be clarified and true intent to be understood.

My interviews are very pointed. I'm an active participant; I will kindly interrupt people. But I've learned there is nothing people won't tell you if you ask in a compassionate and legitimately interested way.

You can ask me any question you want, but don't ask me to criticize anyone else.

Don’t talk to the people until you’ve listened to the people.