Part of a writer’s job is capturing the world around them. This includes paying attention to physical things from landscape and weather to clothing and food.

But it also means listening to people. All of them.

• Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket): “Eavesdrop and write down what people say. You think you’ll remember everything you hear, but you won’t. So write it down.”
• Josh Sippie: “There is nothing that you overhear someone saying that can then become “unrealistic” dialogue, or an unrealistic way to speak. It’s as real as it gets.”
• Christopher Isherwood: “I am a camera, my shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.”

Go ahead and eavesdrop. It’s research.