Characters, all of you, everywhere

Truth is stranger than fiction. I know this for a fact, because I ride the subway every day. While I delight in the crazy characters imagined by the great brains of Jack Gantos or Daniel Pinkwater I often wonder, how do they come up with this stuff? But then I look up from my book only to be astounded by the interesting details being played out on the human stage. Some of my recent favorites? That guy in the coffee shop with the beautifully worn old brown leather journal, the ivory pages covered