Great Interview Questions - Tell Your Story with Evalogue.Life

Great interviews start with great questions. As part of our book writing and historical projects, we have done thousands of interviews, so we have learned a thing or two. Here are some valuable question lists and other free resources to get you started.

Getting Started

It’s a good idea to go into an interview with a few questions prepared, and especially highlight any that you want to make sure you ask. However, often an ice breaker and a well-chosen question here and there will keep the conversation going. It’s a positive sign when not all your questions are used in an interview (they rarely are).

Also, most interviewees appreciate receiving a few questions in advance. When sending, indicate that they are simply food for thought and the interview will not follow a rigid format. If only one interview is done with a subject, ask a variety of questions on different topics. You might check out our top 10 questions list as a handy reference, listed below. If a series of interviews is envisioned, it’s helpful to focus on themes in each interview.

More Support

If you are interested in preserving life stories, our online course contains an excellent segment on oral history. You can complete this fun and engaging self-paced course over a weekend, or spread it out through a month. (Course access remains open for a year). Click here to preview.

Categories of Questions

10 Universal questions for anyone
Childhood, school and hometown
Relationship questions
Family life as an adult
Work and profession
Spirituality, religion and values
Questions for Veterans

10 universal interview questions

This is a great list for a stand-alone interview and is a handy grab-and-go cheat sheet. Some of the questions are repeated in other categories.

Where were you born?
Tell me about your childhood, what was the best part? Worst?
Who was the most influential person in your life?
What is your profession and why?
What was the happiest time of your life?
Tell about a time when you didn’t know if you would make it.
Who is the love of your life and how did you meet?
What is your passion (or a favorite hobby?)
What is your favorite memory of me?
What do you value most and why?

Get our free printable:

Quick interviewing resources

Before we continue with more questions, we want to make you aware of other resources we have compiled to help you.

Oral history mini course online: video tutorials and checklists will help you feel confident with audio, transcribing and effective listening. It takes less than 2 hours to complete but will save you so much time as you level-up your interview skills!
If you would like help getting started with interviewing, sign up to receive our free 7-day interviewing mini tutorial
You can click here to get a free printable of our favorite questions
Here is a landing page of our many interviewing resources
If you are writing a memoir or family history, here is a landing page of writing tools
Finally, we do this work professionally and offer gift certificates to interview you or a loved one. Click here to see our oral history services.

Childhood, School and Hometown

What is your earliest memory?
Who are your parents? Where did they grow up?
Where were you born?
How many siblings do you have and where do you fall in your family?
What were your chores?
What is your hometown, and what was it like when you were young?
Did you like school?
What did you do for fun?
How did you celebrate holidays?
Did your family have some special holiday traditions?
What were your favorite meals?
What were some memorable trips or outings?
Can you think of any funny stories from your youth?
What is an object you still have from your childhood and what is the story behind it?
What is a moment from your life that you wish you had a photograph?

Family Life as an Adult

Are you or have you ever been married?
Do you have children?
What are traditions you established in your family?
What were your favorite trips or outings?
Where do you live now and why?
Who is your best friend?
What was the happiest time in your adult life so far? Why?
What was the hardest time? How did you get through it?
What were the most important values you wanted to teach your family?
How would you want your loved ones to remember you?

Relationship Questions

Editor’s note: This category is not limited to marriage or intimate partner. These questions can also apply to a great friend or business partner.

How did you meet? (Note: This is such a simple question yet it is an effective ice breaker)
What are some of your early and best memories together?
Do you have a song, “our song?”
Did you ever break up?
Was there ever a time or times when you didn’t know if your relationship would make it?
When and how did you know it was meant to be?
What are the challenges in your relationship?
How do you work through disagreements or differences?
What are some of your best fun memories together?
Do any trips or vacations together especially stand out?
Can you think of a low point in your life when the other person was there for you?
How do you keep your relationship strong?
How are you alike, and how are you different?
What do you admire most about the other person?
What are the other person’s quirks or personality traits that you love?
How are you better together than without the other person?
Thinking of your relationship, what advice would you give a young person, such as your children?
Can you think of long-standing inside jokes, or phrases you tell each other?
What are some of the activities that you share, that maybe other people wouldn’t understand or that are unique to your relationship?
What are your dreams for the future together?
Would you say that this person is the love of your life?

Professional interviewer’s note: Starting any interview by asking how two people met is a great way to break the ice!

Work and Profession

What was your first job?
What is your profession or job?
Do you like your job?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
How did you get into this line of work?
Have you belonged to any civic or professional organizations?
Have you ever been involved in politics or a political cause?
What are you proudest of in your career?
Who was your greatest mentor?
What is your passion and how did you get started with it?

Spirituality, Religion and Values

Have you ever experienced a miracle or an answer to a prayer?
Do you believe in God?
Do you associate with a religion or spiritual practice?
If you attend religious services, where do you attend? Why do you choose worship with that particular congregation or community?
What was the most powerful spiritual experience of your life?
What are you proudest of in your life?
What do you regret?
If you could share with your family your most important values, what would you say?
What experiences in your life taught you these values?

Questions for Veterans

Did you enlist or were you drafted?
What branch of the military did you serve in?
Why did you choose that branch of the service?
What were your job duties?
If you served during war time, did you see combat?
- If you saw combat, how did you feel when witnessing casualties and destruction? (For help with sensitive subjects, click here.)
What kinds of friendships and camaraderie did you form while serving, and with whom?
How did you stay in touch with family and friends back home?
What did you do for recreation?
What did you learn from your time in the military?
What would you want to share with future generations about your service and your feelings about our country?

Related: Here is a comprehensive list of Questions for Veterans (published by the Library of Congress Veteran History Project)

Other resources for you

We do this work for a living and can use our experience to help you get it done! We conduct oral history interviews in via Zoom, which can make a great gift. We regularly teach classes in person and online for the DIY personalities and natural writers. We also write life stories and help others write theirs through our writing groups, educational emails and coaching. Do you have a question? Let us know! Click here to reach out.

Index of interviewing resources

You might want to check out our index page of interviewing resources.
Want great audio? Read our article with 12 steps for the best audio and how to save it.
Need to transcribe your interview? Click here for a detailed article on how to efficiently transcribe audio.

Free Interviewing Mini tutorial PDF

To motivate and help you do great interviews, we created a free 7-day interviewing mini course that’s printable and self-paced. Click on the link for a free download. We hope you find it helpful!

How to do oral history interviews course

By completing this short course, you will feel confident and prepared to conduct life story interviews. Receive thorough, yet easy-to-understand answers to questions such as: What is the power of voice to evoke memories and inspire others? Should you use a digital recorder, or app on your phone, or both? What are best practices for doing interviews by Zoom/Teams/Google Meet? Which microphones are worth the money? What are the most efficient methods for transcribing audio? Why is oral history the easiest, and most powerful way to capture a life story?

Click here to preview or enroll. I’m so happy to say our students have loved it! You can see their thoughts on our courses, printables, and services here.

We hope that these resources help you do engaging and meaningful interviews. We know this work is worth it, and you can do it. Do it now and it will be enough.

Questions Everyone Should Ask

Don't have regrets. Preserve a life story now with our all-time best questions. Interview a loved one or prompt your own personal history. Do it now, and it will be enough.