Sam Esmail

“I don't want to watch a show or a movie about the guy who doesn't have any problems, who is sort of a goodie two shoes and just does everything morally right, because that's not the person I relate to. That's not who I am. That's not what anyone is.”

“My parents were very strict Muslims, and they weren't shy about showing it.”

“I took Pascal, and I was terrible. And then, when I went to NYU, I minored in computer science. I just couldn't code. I just didn't have the patience for it.”

“If you think about it, just the psychology of the superhero is, 'Because I can, I should protect people, and I should put bad guys away, and I should defend society.' But you're forming your own justice. There's no judge and jury here: you are it. That, in and of itself, is a very complicated way of looking at morality.”

“I had a funny last name, and I didn't look like everybody else, and I got faced with a lot of racism.”

“I used to hold Stanley Kubrick film festivals at my house in high school. These are not cool things.”

“This is the great thing about TV is that when you discover certain strengths in an actor, you can then begin to exploit them in really fun ways.”

“The story of 'Mr. Robot' is really about this guy who's lonely - who's alone and feels so disconnected from the world.”

“I never let the technical stuff get in the way of the storytelling.”

“I'm very protective of my online life, and I try and take as many security measures.”

“I never try and tune anything out. I think that's a mistake. You want to bring all the honest stuff that's going on inside you into your work. Otherwise, you're keeping a lot of authenticity out.”

“The one thing that I know from the personal experiences that I've had with hackers and from people in tech who are brilliant at this thing, is there's a lot of angst.”

“I don't think it's political to dislike Trump. I don't think it's controversial to say he's a bad president. He's clearly a bad president. He's clearly not equipped to do the job.”

“When I first created the world of 'Mr. Robot,' I thought it would be a niche television series with a small, cult following.”

“I'm a huge fan of 'The Watch,' and I've also been on a few times. It's Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan's show on The Ringer. It's just a great podcast about television.”

“B. D. Wong is one of my favorite actors.”

“Looking back at 'Taxi Driver' or, really, any of the Martin Scorsese films, he really filmed New York City in a way that I saw New York City.”

“I always thought the writing process for movies and TV shows was just a blueprint. The making of it was the thing.”

“I went to NYU undergrad, then went to AFI for grad school.”

“With acting, a lot of it has to come from that real, honest place.”