Do you ever draw characters from real life and just give them different names?
There’s only one character — and a very minor one at that — that was taken pretty much whole from “real life” (and no, I’m not about to say which character). I do take patterns of behavior, mannerisms, speech patterns, and physical features from individuals, but they’re recombined in different ways. And I’m more than certain that I’ve borrowed and/or stolen more than I realize from life and people I’ve met without even consciously being aware of doing so.