Sam Esmail

“I'm not saying I'm a control freak, though I'll admit that I am at times.”

“Sound design is always critical, especially when you're doing a thriller with a lot of suspense and tension.”

“I love reading about other people's world view.”

“I did not love going out to parties or even get-togethers, really - I went to the movies, which, if you think about it, is an isolating experience anyway - and this was because I had anxiety about interacting with people.”

“I could watch 'There Will Be Blood' all day long, and Daniel Plainview is a terrible person - but he's still compelling to watch. That's what makes me want to engage and see what happens next.”

“When you don't have a main character that's flawed, I don't know how you relate to that person.”

“I think people are more than their heritage or their skin colour or their name or how they grew up.”

“I've seen shows that start to go down the path of fan service, and it really diminishes the quality.”

“I'm a film nerd.”

“I have tremendous social anxiety.”

“It's weird; my fascination with tech was kind of combined with the fact that my parents would never pay for anything. It got me more involved because I would have to find clever ways to get things for free.”

“I always suspend logic for emotion. If it feels real, or it feels like what I'm going for, we should abandon reality a little bit and go for that. I'm not a documentarian. We're not trying to shoot things for naturalism.”

“In a weird way, I never wanted - I don't consider myself a very good writer. I consider myself okay; I don't consider myself great. There's Woody Allen and Aaron Sorkin. There's Quentin Tarantino. I'm not ever gonna be on that level. But I do consider myself a good filmmaker.”

“People thought I looked weird, that I talked weird.”

“Typically, whenever you're envisioning how you're going to shoot something, you have a location or a set that you're going to build, and it's going to be built to specifications.”

“Before we started shooting 'Homecoming,' we were in the writer's room for 'Mr. Robot.' I was also editing Season 3 of 'Mr. Robot' while I was prepping for the 'Homecoming' shoot. So yeah, it's a lot of hats.”

“I'm controlling over anything I create. I'm very precious about it.”

“I love voiceover. I never understood this idea that it was lazy. Well, yes, there are those movies or TV shows that use it as just a way to get out exposition. But you know what? That's just bad writing.”

“I've always been fascinated by this idea of who we are versus who we want to be.”

“I never look at twists as a way to trick the audience. Obviously, I think a good story has surprises and unexpected turns, and you always want to do that with an audience. But it has nothing to do with conning them or making them believe so strongly in one thing and then kind of going the other way.”