Once I left out what I then considered my best line because there was a suspected column rat in the house.
Dick CavettEvery writer knows that unless you were born gifted with either supreme confidence or outsize ego, handing in your work holds, in some cases, admitted terror. If that's too strong, at least fairly high anxiety.
Dick CavettYears have passed since I have set foot in a comedy club. If the comic is doing badly it's painful, and if the comic is doing brilliantly, it's extremely painful.
Dick CavettThe trick to writing for people is, you have to be able to turn them on in your head. And know how they'd word something or how they'd inflect it.
Dick CavettAll three of my parents - I also had a stepmother - were teachers, and my dad taught high school, and as he always reminded me when I was going to spend some money on something, 'Your mother and I, in the Depression, had to decide whether to spend a dime on a loaf of bread or if we could go to a movie with it.'
Dick Cavett