“Leave It To Charlie Rose To Begin His Black Eye Story With ‘I Had Been To The Museum That Morning…'”

April 2, 2013 in Excerpts | Permalink

Charlie Rose, a handsome and agreeable robot who was constructed in a laboratory almost entirely from bourbon and cufflinks, just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

Good morning, Charlie Rose. I have read that when you were a child you worked in your father’s country store. What were the dreams you had growing up? Have you fulfilled them? Where did your sophistication come from?

Charlie Rose:

I was born in 1942 in a small town: Henderson, North Carolina. About 15,000 people. My father fought in World War II and my mother and I lived with my grandparents; when my father came back, my responsibility was to get up every morning and open the store. The interesting thing about my dreams was that there was a train that ran from Boston to Miami that came close to our house. And I would look at that train — it was always going north — and think, wouldn’t I love to be on that? I didn’t know journalists and I didn’t know actors and I didn’t know architects and I didn’t know scientists. I knew lawyers and doctors and businesspeople. But my whole drive was to experience, to live, to access as much as I could. To have my driving passion be curiosity. All of the passions that have served me, made me. Curiosity, drive, the pursuit of experience. Whenever I look back, I know I learned more from when I said “yes” than when I said “no.”

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Question:

Who’s been your favorite guest over the years?

Charlie Rose:

It’s hard to say. I think mainly of fields. Among politicians, certainly Bill Clinton because he’s engaged by a whole range of subject matter. When I think about athletes, probably my favorite guest of all time among baseball players was Ted Williams. Richard Serra, the great sculptor, personifies an artist for me. When I think about science, certainly Eric Kandel because of the Brain Series we did. Actors: Clooney, because of friendship, but British actors are interesting because of simply the diversity of what they bring to the table from Shakespeare to comedy to James Bond. The person I’ve always wanted to interview but never met was Richard Burton. I also like a lot of directors; the one I’ve never interviewed is Spielberg, but I like Sam Mendes. As a general rule, I like artists and writers — people who are creative. Increasingly, I find scientists interesting because of their work.

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Question:

Sorry if this is a sore subject Mr. Rose, but what’s up with the black eye you had last year? When I was watching I saw it but had no idea what happened.

Charlie Rose:

I had been to the museum that morning. It was a Saturday morning. I had taken with me my new MacBook Air. As I was coming back, at the intersection of 59th Street and 5th Avenue, I tripped on a curb and put my hand out to save the computer, but in the process got a black eye. Rather than making up a much more interesting story, that’s the story. Apple I think offered to make a commercial but I didn’t take them up on that.

Question:

Leave it to Charlie Rose to begin his black eye story with “I had been to the museum that morning…”

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Question:

If you would not have gone into journalism and television, what career would you have chosen? What fields intrigue you enough to perhaps considered?

Charlie Rose:

I would’ve been intrigued by being a film director. I would’ve been intrigued by politics. I thought about architecture. I would not have been working for something big, I would’ve been trying to create something. You can do that in a large institution but it’s just not what’s natural for me. I’d like to big something big but I don’t want to start in something big.•

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