Because the more you write the more you're aware of the weight of your tradition and the difficulties of the form and the more you have already done that you do not want to do again.

This Boy's Life (1989) concerns itself with the author's adolescence in Seattle and then Newhalem a remote company town in the North Cascade mountains of Washington State. In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981) a collection of short stories. Wolff however repudiates such claims.

He is known for his memoirs particularly This Boy's Life (1989) and his short stories. He has also written two novels.