![]() ![]() I read the book because Oprah had strongly recommended it. Gayle King: The Color Purple has been with me from the very beginning. And he saw me-he came out of the shower, the TV was on, he saw me. He had flown in on a red-eye and was in his hotel room. You know when you go to movies, at the end of the movie it has “best boy”? I thought, I’ll be the first “best girl.” It didn’t even occur to me that I could actually play a role in it until one day when Quincy Jones was in Chicago. I thought I would just carry water for whoever was in it. So I literally prayed to God every night that I could be a part of The Color Purple. And then I found out they were turning the book into a movie. Oprah: It all started when I read the book, which changed my life. I didn’t have a way of having the conversation about Black women’s empowerment in a way that felt comfortable. At the time, I didn’t have any kind of platform or way of having that conversation about what Celie was saying. I’d be looking at people under the dryers and thinking, I wonder, does she read? Even if she doesn’t, she can give it to somebody else. I was telling people I worked with, “If you don’t read it, then you can’t be my friend.” I was going to beauty salons I didn’t know on Saturdays and handing out the books. I was buying books and handing them out on the street. I had never done that with anything before. I’d open a conversation with, “How are you today? Have you read The Color Purple?” and give the person a book. I would walk down the street with at least 10 or 12 books, until I’d lightened my load, and then I’d go back and buy more. I would empty out the bookstore every week, buying all their stock. I used to carry a backpack to and from work, just to give out the book. Instead, I was trying to force the conversation with other people one-on-one, literally one-on-one: “You need to read this.” If I could have put on a sandwich board and gone out into the street, I would’ve. There was no way to have that conversation. We probably tried to have her on, but AliceWalker wasn’t coming to Baltimore for a local talk show. I was still in Baltimore then, doing a talk show. But I also knew that if I had been so moved by the story, at least a million other people would also have this feeling. When I read those first lines, “Dear God, I am fourteen years old,” I thought, How does Alice Walker know about my life? I was moved by the story because at 14 years old, I became pregnant and had to hide it, and the baby died. I got out of bed, went to get the book at the bookstore around the corner from me, came home, and read it straight through. OPRAH WINFREY (Sofia in the 1985 film producer on the 2005 Broadway musical, the 2015 Broadway revival, and the 2023 film): I was obsessed from the moment in 1982 when I read the New York Times review of the novel. Rose Library Collections Archive at Emory University © Joy Harris Literary Agency The 1982 Novel ![]()
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