It's kinda weird because you think of carbon as a lump of coal, but the reality is that the ("outside") look and properties of a material depend on the molecules it's made of AND on how they are arranged / linked together. A ruby is aluminium rust. So you can arrange carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen and get all sorts of materials: flour, sugar, wood, amber, ivory, fat, cellophane, gasoline, vodka, and so on.