[Writing about themselves] gives them wings, so that they can rise above the confounding maze of their lives and, from that perspective, begin to see the patterns and dead ends of their pasts, and a way out. That's the funny thing about mazes; what's baffling on the ground begins to make sense when you can begin to rise above it, the better to understand your history and fix yourself.

Among these he mentions painters Edward Hopper and Rene Magritte. A. He credits his perennial teaching of certain novels to high school students with teaching him about "the scaffolding" of longer stories.

Wally Lamb (born October 17 1950) is an American author known as the writer of the novels She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True both of which were selected for Oprah's Book Club. He was the director of the Writing Center at Norwich Free Academy in Norwich from 1989 to 1998 and has taught Creative Writing in the English Department at the University of Connecticut.