I have an interviewee who has spoken about a topic but has rambled a bit is it ok to have a quote which just leaves big sections out?

i.e. "this is an interesting topic because XYZ happened........[represents gap of about a page in interview]...........people do this blah blah"

Is this ok???

if so is it ok to rearrange the text, as long as it keeps the same meaning i.e. he speaks about UVW first and then XYZ but I quote

"this is an interesting topic because XYZ happened... but that's important because UVW...."

So confused.

Hi Sneaks,

I think the idea of a quote is to illustrate a point, to bring forward an issue that is interesting and hard to grasp with just academic writing.

Frequently quotes have been slightly adapted, for example leaving out short bits which are not relevant, not understandable etc. However, I think that the idea is to keep things as close as possible to what originally has been said. Also, if you would leave out bits, I think it is important that your co-authors agree with what you are doing.
:-)

Thanks Rick, I've decided to leave out that particular quote all together now because it was too difficult to get right. All my other ones seem more straightforward, so will see if my sup picks up on it or not.