Where Can I Read Quotes From Bestselling Authors' Interviews?

I’m a student who loves to annotate, so I keep a few go-to places for author interview quotes: long-form interviews in 'The Paris Review Interviews' and features in The New Yorker and The Guardian, NPR Books interviews, and Literary Hub or Electric Literature for contemporary pieces. For quick grabs I check Wikiquote and Goodreads, then follow the trail back to the original interview to confirm wording and context. YouTube interviews with captions and podcast transcripts (when available) are super useful for exact phrasing; if I’m doing academic work I use my library’s ProQuest access to find published interview transcripts. A small habit that helps: I set a Google Alert for writer names I’m studying so any new interview or quoted excerpt shows up in my inbox, which saves frantic late-night searches.

I end up collecting quotes for my blog and social feeds, so I lean heavily on podcasts and publisher channels. Podcasts like 'Between the Covers' or The New Yorker’s book podcasts usually include conversational gems; many podcasters post timestamps or full transcripts on their episode pages, which makes grabbing an exact line simple. Publisher websites and book pages are also surprisingly reliable — tour pages, press kits, and author interviews hosted by Penguin, Bloomsbury, or HarperCollins often contain curated quotes meant for press use.

When I want fast, searchable results I use Google tricks: put the suspected phrase in quotes and add site:theguardian.com or site:nytimes.com to narrow it down. For archival material, newspaper databases (ProQuest, LexisNexis) accessed through a library will turn up magazine and newspaper interviews that aren’t visible in normal web searches. A short caution: crowdsourced sites like Goodreads or BrainyQuote are excellent starting points but cross-check with the original interview if you’re going to quote someone publicly. I usually save a screenshot or copy the URL into an Evernote note, and sometimes I email the clip to myself so it’s easy to find when I’m writing later.

I get a little thrill when I find a memorable line from a writer I admire, so I keep a mental map of where to hunt. My favorite long-form source is the interview archives of literary magazines — especially 'The Paris Review Interviews' (the book series and their online Q&As). Those conversations are gold because they’re structured, long, and the context around a quote is almost always preserved. I also routinely check The New Yorker, The Guardian Books section, and NPR Books for more recent interviews; their pieces often include highlighted pull-quotes you can skim if you’re short on time.

For quick lookups I use a mix of curated quote sites and primary sources. Goodreads and Wikiquote are great for finding lines fast, but I treat them like leads rather than gospel — I’ll click through to the original interview when accuracy matters. BrainyQuote and similar compilations can be handy for sharing, but watch for misattributions. When I want verbatim transcripts, YouTube interviews with auto-captions, publisher-hosted videos, or podcast show notes (some podcasts post full transcripts) are lifesavers.

A few practical tips from my own messy bookmarks: use site-specific Google searches like site:parisreview.org "Author Name" interview, set Google Alerts or an RSS feed for authors you follow, and subscribe to publisher author pages (Penguin, HarperCollins, Faber, etc.) — they often post excerpts and media links. If you have library access, ProQuest and Nexis provide polished transcripts of major interviews. Above all, keep a citation habit: I paste the URL and date into my notes so I don’t spread a quote without context. Happy quote hunting — it’s way more fun than it sounds, especially with coffee and a messy notebook nearby.