That's becasue you are trying to copy and paste the text object.
Double click on the text object(or select text object and type _ddedit), either of which opens the text editor. You have to select the actual letters out of the text editor with the mouse, like you do in Word. Copy them. Open a blank word/excel file, paste. The actual letters will be there, I promise!
Remember: The Chinese ideogram for “crisis” is comprised of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.”
-Steve