Questioning quotation: Writing about interview experiences without using quotes

Abstract

It is expected that we present participant quotes when writing up qualitative interview research. Yet doing so carries the risk of making our participants' lives seem too neat and can give the misplaced illusion that we have easily made sense of their situation. This paper explores other ways that we might work with interviews that are more sensitive to the complexities of interview encounters themselves. Through reflection on an interview with a rideshare driver that challenged my interpretive capacities, I explore other ways of writing up interviews that do not use quotes. The paper invites us to consider occasions where it might be more advantageous to produce a narrative description of what it was like to do the interview itself, or to write a narrative response to the interview.