I was once told that if a statement makes you say "Ah, I never heard that before," then it's worthy of being quoted. This has stuck with me while interviewing. If it makes me say "Ah, I never heard that before," there's a good chance that others will say the same.
To be honest, quotes used to make me nervous. I felt obliged to use them, but unsure of how they would fit into my story. At times, I would hope that the interviewee would say something quotable. I would fish for more when I hadn't gotten something yet. Although I disliked not having a quote, I disliked discarding quotes even more when the quote that I liked did not help the story overall.
I am happy to say that I no longer fear quotes. I keep the "Ah, I never heard that before" idea in the back of my head. After conducting a couple of interviews, I still get excited when I have someone who provides me with lots of quotable statements.
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