The Uncanny Inspiration of Blogging | Dick Cavett | Big Think

The Uncanny Inspiration of Blogging

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As Dick Cavett has discovered, there is no limit to the subjects one can find themselves covering when starting a blog; and there is similarly no limit to the unique satisfaction that comes with being able to engage with readers’ responses.

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Dick Cavett:

Dick Cavett was the host of “The Dick Cavett Show” and the co-author of two books, “Cavett” (1974) and “Eye on Cavett” (1983). He has appeared on Broadway in “Otherwise Engaged,” “Into the Woods” and as narrator in “The Rocky Horror Show,” and has made guest appearances in movies and on TV shows including “Forrest Gump” and “The Simpsons.” He currently operates a blog for the “Opinionator” section of the New York Times. Mr. Cavett lives in New York City and Montauk, N.Y.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: Does blogging come easily to you?

Dick Cavett: Oh, blogging, I thought you said blocking, because of my football career. I love doing it, when I'm doing it. I hate it when it's coming up again and I don't have a subject. And it's delightful reading the online responses that people write, especially when they're positive. When it's goodbye forever, Mr. Cavett, it's stimulating in another way.

But yeah, I had no idea I would have anything more than three columns in me about any subject on earth, any subjects on earth, when it began, and so far, I've managed to keep going, I don't know if two years is or are up or not. It's been a lot of them, and they will be gathered into a book, so that people without computers--

Whoever they are, will be able to turn the pages and read about Nixon and Bobby Fischer and depression and John Wayne and Richard Burton and hundreds, God, I guess, almost hundreds of subjects. Sarah Palin's column got, sort of shattered the all-time record for responses, forwardings to other people, and receiving from other people. One woman wrote, "I got the column from 12 friends and sent it to 12 friends." But when you write something and it's quoted back to you, it's satisfying in a way that it isn't if you say it on TV or do it in your night club act and the Sarah Palin one, almost everybody, if they quoted a line, said it was, "She seems to have no first language." And I went on about the fact that how irresponsible it was of a presidential candidate to put a know-nothing in position to be the president of the United States and said, in fact, I felt sorry for John McCain, that he aimed low and missed.