Alice Walker

What are your feelings about contemporary feminism?

The conundrum, in a way, is why, after all the struggle, and all the teaching – teaching was so important: we taught each other, and we taught other women and girls – women, at this point, are comfortable referring to themselves as guys, and basically erasing their femininity at every opportunity. I don't get it.

The attacks on Steven Spielberg's film version were extremely venomous. How did that affect you?

People abused me publicly, people who would start out by saying: "I have not read this book. I have not seen this film, but..." And the other side of that was that I was being censored, when they take your books out of schools, for years and years and years. It was hard and yet, again, I turned back to the ancestors, who actually are that little voice that says: "We know what we're doing," and I founded a publishing company, called Wild Trees Press, and started to publish other unpopular people.

You travel the world as a protester, but you also love solitude. How does that work?

It's quite an effort. I'll be 70 next year and 50-something years have been spent in writing and in activism, actually being on top of mountains and standing in crowds of people protesting. My road is a multi-directional road... What is helpful, though, is that I don't tend to respond to what is not calling.