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yevtushenko: We don’t have enough openness when we speak about our past. Without having more open conversations about the problems of our past, we can’t decide the problems of our present. To put sugar on the open wounds is even more dangerous. Ever since ancient times, professional seamen have cured their wounds with salty water. It was the only way for them. Salt, honest salt, could be more helpful than dishonest sugar. Yes, we must not only put salt on open wounds, we must dig into them as deep as possible, because there is still some infection which doesn’t give us the possibility to be absolutely healthy. Great literature is always a great warning. If we see some danger, we must prophylactically write about it. Even if it’s very painful. This literature must be like acupuncture. We mustn’t be afraid to put needles into the most painful points of the conscience. It’s painful, it’s unpleasant, but you might be saved. q: Your critics ask why the Soviet state, which will not tolerate others, tolerates you. yevtushenko: Some of the American press accuse some Russian writers of being conformist, not rebellious enough, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I am a victim of this accusation, because I am not in prison, I am not in a mental hospital, nothing like that. Such a writer’s life is sometimes interpreted in your country as a kind of dishonesty. But I am a poetician, not a politician. As a poet, I don’t like any kind of borders, prisons, any kind of police, army, missiles, anything which is connected with repression. I don’t like it. And I never gloriWed it. And I did everything that was possible. I am not God. Nobody is God—not even God himself. I am absolutely convinced that all poets, all real poets, are rebels. In all centuries simple honesty looks like courage. Rebels are not only very famous people who make public statements. If someone doesn’t give to others the possibility of engaging him in their hypocrisy, he is a rebel. Not famous, but a rebel. There are so many unknown rebels in the world, just simple, honest people. Any kind of honesty is rebellion. —Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editor of The Nation magazine. An Interview with Alice Walker, Novelist Claudia Dreifus august 1989 q: Do you think some of the attacks on you are really jealousy of your worldly attainments ? You’ve got the prizes, the money, the fame—many of these gentlemen critics would like that stu¤, too. alice walker: I suppose. There is nothing I can say about it except I’ve worked very hard all my life. I have not had an easy life. I did not start out writing to attain worldly goods. I started out writing to save my life. I had a childhood where I was 332 part 17 writers, musicians, & performers very much alone and I wrote to comfort myself. I’ve been very suicidal at times in my life, for various reasons that I don’t want to go into here. But I’ve had some really hard times. And whenever that has happened, I have written myself out of it. And it may look to other people like “silver platter time,” but to me, it’s just been a very long struggle; so it was always just astonishing to me that anyone would be envious. q: When you say you’ve written yourself out of depressions, is that because you created characters to keep you company? walker: No. It’s because of the act of creation itself. It’s like in Native American cultures, when you feel sick at heart, sick in soul, you do sand paintings. Or you make a basket. The thing is that you are focused on creating something. And while you’re doing that, there’s a kind of spiritual alchemy that happens and you turn that bad feeling into something that becomes a golden light. It’s all because you are intensely creating something that is beautiful. And in Native American cultures by the time you’ve Wnished the sand painting, you’re well. The point is to heal yourself. q: More than many writers, you are known as a political activist. What do you get from activism? walker: Well, it pays the rent on being alive and being here on the planet. There are things that you really owe, I feel...

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