I always felt a little bit of an outsider, especially because I grew up on Oahu.
I'm proud of being from Hawaii, and I'm proud of being Hawaiian, but I'm more than that, too.
I like to work out every day, so that takes up some time.
Disney's Aulani Resort has really developed the southwest coast of Oahu and led to it getting more attention.
For my 11th birthday, I asked to be adopted.
I loved 'Belzhar' by Meg Wolitzer.
Jonathan Franzen seems like the grumpiest guy, and he doesn't seem to like much of anything, so I really don't care what he has to say.
I love film and have taken a stab at a screenplay. I love writing dialogue and found it highly enjoyable.
It's useless to criticize things that people love and something that speaks to them.
Hawaii is so complex; there are so many points of view, and there are so many experiences to see and to find.
People go surfing before work and paddling afterward. My husband is from Wisconsin, and he goes to work in his Hawaiian shirt.
I felt like I haven't had the typical experience of a novelist whose book becomes a movie.
The best thing about being a fiction writer is that where the truth is inconvenient, I could veer away.
With families, no matter what kind you inherit, at some point you want to announce that you belong to it.
When you're a child, you crave formal recognition; you crave ceremony, celebration, certification of proof.
The beauty of cinema is that it can do some things that novels just can't.
What's great about teen fiction is that it's all mixed up - there's highbrow and lowbrow!
Especially when I write, I want to get out of people's heads and have them speak and have them get dressed and have them go to work.
