The Wall Street Journal has an interview today with Steve Jobs and AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson about the debut of the iPhone.

One of the highlights is Jobs not-so-humble take on the iPhone’s interface:

“One of the things we feel is this is the biggest breakthrough in user interfaces in 23 years. Since the Mac in 1984 brought us the mouse and bit map displays and folders and icons, there really hasn’t been much except for the evolution of that in the last 23 years. This is a revolutionary user interface [on the iPhone] — multi-touch, direct action. It’s pretty remarkable. I’m very excited.

I remember the week before we introduced the Mac. We knew every computer would work this way once we had the Mac. You couldn’t talk about ‘If,’ you could debate about ‘When.’ That’s how I feel about this. I feel this is the direction mobile devices are going to have to go. I don’t think it’s a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. The first and most breakthrough one of them is going to be on the market tomorrow.”

Jobs doesn’t make any promises about the possibility of using iTunes songs as ringtones, or purchasing songs over the air, saying only that “One might imagine a lot of things down the road.”

The pair are also featured at USA Today and the New York Times.