Carl Hiaasen on Warren Zevon

In this interview with Carl Hiaasen, the mystery writer and Miami Herald columnist, he talks a bit about his late friend Warren Zevon.

Warren was such a great writer. I think his lyrics are so unique and so literary, and if you met him and talked to him, you would find out immediately, at least in my case, he read 10 times more than I had time to read.
He was just extremely literate and well-read, and much of his song-writing was nuanced with literary references. And he also agonized over every single adjective and adverb and every line of his lyrics. He went through the same sort of agony that writers go through, if they're serious writers, when they're writing. And I think that's why he had so many friends who were writers and so many were drawn to him. ... And he was a great character on top of it. I think that's the other thing you have to remember from a novelist's point of view. He was a true character. He was larger than life.

Hiassen is a good writer in his own right, so go check out the interview.
Link found at Syntax of Things.