It's been wonderful to hear so many excited and intelligent responses to 'Beautiful Children,' not only from reviewers but also from the people coming out to my readings. Charles Bock More Quotes by Charles Bock More Quotes From Charles Bock In English, I never did the reading when it was assigned. If a paper was due on Friday, my attitude was, read half the book on Tuesday, the second half on Wednesday, and write the paper Thursday night. Sometimes, I'd just read the Cliff's Notes and skip the book altogether. Charles Bock reading attitude sometimes night I had a string of really awful jobs in Manhattan where my whole point was to do as little work in the world as possible so I could hoard time to write. Charles Bock possible work time world A woman at a bookstore in Brattleboro, Vt., put Castle Freeman Jr.'s novel 'Go With Me' in my hand, and I took it to be nice. 'Yeah I'll probably read five pages,' I thought. But once I started, I could not put it down. Charles Bock woman down thought me Let's just say I'm a believer in universal, single-payer healthcare insurance. Charles Bock insurance say just healthcare It's understandable why someone might not want to take on a book they think is emotionally hard. Charles Bock someone think want book Las Vegas is a great place to be from, not to live in. Charles Bock live place great vegas I always thought of Caesars as the gold standard. I had exactly one date in high school, and my father knew someone who got us comped here for the Sammy Davis Jr. show. We heard 'Candy Man,' 'Mr. Bojangles' - the whole list. And then my date and I went off to the dance - homecoming, I think - where she pretty much ignored me. Charles Bock me man dance father I never ran away, but I was very unhappy as a teenager. I felt like a complete nonentity, and I very tangibly have memories of not wanting to be here - in my body. Charles Bock never body unhappy memories The literary world is filled with good and generous people. But then that's what writing is all about - empathy. Charles Bock good empathy people world I was always small and thin. I wasn't the kid who got invited to parties. Charles Bock small who kid always One older brother of mine collects comics, and when I was younger, I collected them, too. Charles Bock them older mine brother It wasn't a leap for me to go from not wanting to be in my body as a teenager, not wanting to be in my house, to thinking, 'What would happen if I had disappeared?' And then going from writing scenes of angry kids to thinking a little more about the parents and what their lives would be like. Charles Bock parents me angry thinking Every author dreams of the kind of attention that 'Beautiful Children' has received in the press. Obviously, it's a shock whenever it happens. So yeah, I'm as surprised as everybody else. Charles Bock dreams attention beautiful children To me, fiction is the single best way there is - to me, it's the most profound way - of dealing with questions that have no answers. Charles Bock best me single way I remember, even in college, reading Cliffs Notes about a book and thinking to myself, 'Geez, that sounds like a good book. I should probably read it.' Charles Bock good myself remember thinking What I try to do is write about forgotten people, and, in a certain sense, we're all forgotten. Charles Bock write try forgotten people I've always been less interested in the person on the top of the Bellagio than I am at the person whose house got moved to create the Bellagio. Charles Bock person i-am always house Writing books takes a long time, and one thing a writer must do is learn to live with his or her project. Charles Bock live long-time time long Too often in this world, the things you root for - whether sports teams or spouses to recover from horrible diseases - don't quite pan out. Charles Bock things you sports world When I was in college, I could only write on a WordPerfect program. Charles Bock write only program college
