he will do the talking

"Don't trouble yourself, though, about writing; and don't trouble yourself about visiting; and when you do visit, don't trouble yourself about talking. I will do all the writing and visiting and talking myself."

(Herman Melville, letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne formerly dated June [1?] 1851; redated to early May 1851 by Hershel Parker)

"All I want is a good listener; I want to converse with you; and if you are absolutely dumb, why I will sometimes answer for you."

"Scenes Beyond the Western Border,"
Southern Literary Messenger 17 (June 1851): 372; and
Scenes and Adventures in the Army (Philadelphia, 1857), 228.

 "... [in Hawthorne] Melville found a good listener to whom he could talk philosophy, literature, or adventure without reserve."  (Leon Howard)