Kaui Hart Hemmings

I'm proud of being from Hawaii, and I'm proud of being Hawaiian, but I'm more than that, too.

I always felt a little bit of an outsider, especially because I grew up on Oahu.

Writing has never been like therapy for me, but blogging comes a little closer - I can smack-talk freely and frequently, and this is good for me.

It's useless to criticize things that people love and something that speaks to them.

I love film and have taken a stab at a screenplay. I love writing dialogue and found it highly enjoyable.

I can't speak for all Hawaiians, but the reality is that we depend on tourism. Locals might not want to go to the spots like Waikiki, but we do want tourists to experience more of the islands.

Hawaii is so complex; there are so many points of view, and there are so many experiences to see and to find.

I try to think of it not as writer's block, but a time where you just need to live life and experience things so you have something to write about.

I felt like I haven't had the typical experience of a novelist whose book becomes a movie.

I feel like having details from their day and having a plot and action and things to do is much more revealing than having a character sitting and thinking to themselves. When I'm writing, I want people to actually have a goal, something that's dragging them forward.

When you're a child, you crave formal recognition; you crave ceremony, celebration, certification of proof.

With families, no matter what kind you inherit, at some point you want to announce that you belong to it.