In 1970, Noll spent a year in São Paulo working as a copy editor at the publishing house Editora Nacional, but a year later moved back to Rio and resumed both his work in journalism at Última Hora—writing on literature, theater and music—and his university studies in literature, first at the Faculdade Notre Dame and then at the PUC-Rio, where he received his degree in 1979.

One of Noll's short stories from O cego e a dançarina, "Alguma coisa urgentemente" ("Something urgent"), was the basis for the film Nunca fomos tão felizes (English title: We've Never Been So Happy) in 1983, directed by Murilo Salles and starring actor Claudio Marzo.

He was an invited scholar for a Rockefeller Foundation seminar in Bellagio, Italy, was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002, and spent a two-month writing residency at the Centre for the Study of Brazilian Culture & Society at King's College London in 2004.

Two of his subsequent and perhaps best-known works, the novels Hotel Atlântico (1989) and Harmada (1993), later came out in a 1997 English edition, translated by David Treece and published by Boulevard Books in London.

His most recent works include the novels A céu aberto (1996), Canoas e Marolas (1999), Berkeley em Bellagio (2002), Lorde (2004), and Acenos e afagos (2008), as well as the collections of short stories Mínimos múltiplos comuns (2003) and A máquina de ser (2006).