Alice Walker, page 2

In "The Same River Twice" you say Spielberg said his favorite film of all time was "Gone With the Wind."

Maybe he was joking. He didn't mention this until we were almost to the end of filming, and I felt like, "Oh, my God." I think it turned out okay, it's still not the script I wrote to myself.

How do you respond to the attacks on the movie in regard to the treatment of black men?

I felt thoroughly trashed for many years because the attacks didn't just happen around the showing of the film; they continued for a long time. The only way I could keep going was to stay in my work. Black men -- not all black men, but the ones who were violently opposed to my work -- I think were dealing out of ego and were unable to even see the male characters that I had created.

I often think if O.J. Simpson had read the book and seen the film, as art, it could have helped him deal with his life. And we as a black community could have been saved a lot of embarrassment, a lot of horror, and a lot of grief, because he would have been a different person.

What did you think of the film "Waiting to Exhale?"

I enjoyed it, although I found the women (in the movie) very strange. I don't think I know any women who are that desperate for men. But I have inquired among people that I meet, and they say there are women who are really that desperate. In a way it hurts me, because I feel like the world is full of abundance, in relationships as well as in other areas, and to be so fixated on any person or thing is just not good for your soul.

Whether or not Terry McMillan should have written this or made a movie of it or whatever -- of course she should have. This is how she sees life. She is an artist and she should be supported in her view. I hope that people are more understanding and less eager to trash than they were ten years ago.

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