"I like to write first-person because I like to become the character I'm writing"
About this Quote
Lamb is admitting a kind of controlled possession. Writing in first person isn’t just a stylistic preference for him; it’s an access method, a way to dissolve the authorial “I” into someone else’s skin until the voice stops sounding like craft and starts sounding like inevitability. The intent is bluntly practical: first-person narrows the lens, forcing every fact, memory, and moral judgment to pass through one psyche. You don’t get to hide behind panoramic narration or tasteful distance. You have to commit.
The subtext is risk. “Become the character” suggests empathy, but it also hints at contamination: the writer taking on the character’s shame, appetites, rationalizations, and self-deceptions. Lamb’s best-known work lives in that territory, where trauma and family mythology aren’t explained from a safe perch but metabolized from inside the person who’s still trying to survive it. First-person lets him recreate how a life feels while it’s happening - the messy edits we make mid-thought, the stories we tell ourselves to stay upright.
Context matters because Lamb is a novelist associated with big, emotionally intricate narratives and voices that rely on intimacy rather than pyrotechnics. In an era when “authentic voice” is often treated like branding, he frames it as immersion. It’s less “I have something to say” than “I’m willing to disappear long enough to let someone else speak.” That’s why it works: it turns narration into a moral stance. The reader isn’t just observing a character; they’re trapped in the same justifications, blind spots, and breakthroughs, which is where fiction stops being entertainment and becomes contact.
The subtext is risk. “Become the character” suggests empathy, but it also hints at contamination: the writer taking on the character’s shame, appetites, rationalizations, and self-deceptions. Lamb’s best-known work lives in that territory, where trauma and family mythology aren’t explained from a safe perch but metabolized from inside the person who’s still trying to survive it. First-person lets him recreate how a life feels while it’s happening - the messy edits we make mid-thought, the stories we tell ourselves to stay upright.
Context matters because Lamb is a novelist associated with big, emotionally intricate narratives and voices that rely on intimacy rather than pyrotechnics. In an era when “authentic voice” is often treated like branding, he frames it as immersion. It’s less “I have something to say” than “I’m willing to disappear long enough to let someone else speak.” That’s why it works: it turns narration into a moral stance. The reader isn’t just observing a character; they’re trapped in the same justifications, blind spots, and breakthroughs, which is where fiction stops being entertainment and becomes contact.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|
More Quotes by Wally
Add to List
