My instinct tells me "purpose" is maybe the enemy of a good personal essay. In my own experience, I'm always lost and wandering and searching - where am I? how'd I get in this mess? what's the point? - right… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
What the nostalgic past and the imaginary future seem to share in common is a form of idealism, perhaps a dream of wholeness. Our… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
I have lots of fiction in the drawer, but the essays I mostly kick out into the world, ready or not. Fiction incubates differently,… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
I'm kind of a creature of the alt-weekly universe - my real education into higher culture was acquired in coffee shops, reading those papers,… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
Even with an assignment, I take over, I find a freedom and make the idea my own, and that's where you get the sense… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
Nowadays I imagine people find freer and more accepting venues in blogs, on Tumblr and Instagram and Facebook, in the riot of shouting that… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
“...the boy saw faces disinigrate before his eyes, faces that fell to pieces, then disappeared, leaving a hole.” — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
I like the desperado aspect of essays, the free lance, that mercenary kind of thing, so I just do it, without asking anyone's permission.… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
My presence isn't simply about "character" - I'm present in every part and particle of the thing, in the sound and rhythm of the… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
“She sighed. Ignatius, do you know what the opposite of love is? Hate, I said. Despair, Sister said. Despair is the opposite of love.” — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
“It's hard to kill yourself by taking Tylenol. You die from liver failure, which takes a long time...” — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
Too much me is annoying under any circumstance, but too much me in an essay, however personal, would mar the art. My "character" in… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
I suppose I like certainty as much as anyone else, but I also feel that the hidden costs are high, that we pay a… — Charles D'Ambrosio Copy Share Image
