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. Sam Esmail More Quotes by Sam Esmail More Quotes From Sam Esmail Reality, in general, in my opinion, has gotten blurred. Sam Esmail blurred general opinion reality The world is so heavily influenced by technology, and it has started to feel like it's not on solid ground. The world has become unreliable, unknowable. Facts are vulnerable, and things you have come to rely on are no longer there. Sam Esmail feel you technology world I know when it comes to TV, the writer is king, but to me, the filmmaker is king. Sam Esmail king tv know me I've always been fascinated by this idea of who we are versus who we want to be. Sam Esmail been who always want I think there is more cohesion when you have one director on set. Sam Esmail director more think you A lot of unexpected things do happen on 'Mr. Robot.' Sam Esmail robot happen things unexpected 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. Sam Esmail great good myself way If your loved ones are far away, and they're uploading pictures, you feel like that's enough: these loose strands through email, through social media, are going to supply this connection you have with that person. And I think that's keeping us isolated and lonely in a way that's very dangerous because we're unaware of it. Sam Esmail pictures feel you social-media Movies and television show build on top of each other, succeed one another. In a large way, in terms of filmmaking aesthetics, they evolve because they can't help but be a consequence of all the movies and TV shows that came before it. Sam Esmail movies succeed television way I'm Egyptian, and my parents stupidly decided to move us down to South Carolina when I was five, which was pretty brutal. Sam Esmail us pretty parents down 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. Sam Esmail personal know brilliant people 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. Sam Esmail job bad think political 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. Sam Esmail nyu computer-science patience science 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. Sam Esmail good look you believe I'm not a fan of these very cutty, handheld-y kind of films or TV shows, where a cut is just every half second or every two seconds, where you're desensitized to it. To me, a cut should say something and be impactful. Sam Esmail say something me you It's strange not to allow the actor some input and breathing room into what was written on the page - it is their job to make it come alive. Sam Esmail some job strange alive We frame things in an off-kilter way because it's unsettling. In the 'Mr. Robot' world, that's the norm, and it's the norm for the point of view that we're looking for, which is Elliot's. With our compositions and our visual language and camera movements, it's important to always evoke that unsettling feeling underneath every scene. Sam Esmail looking view feeling world I used to want to be a critic. I think it's an awesome job. You get to watch all this stuff and then write about it and analyze it and give insight into it. That's an amazing job. I was terrible at it, though. Sam Esmail amazing job think you There are some critics that will just write provocative stuff to get attention, but I would say most of the time that's not the case. Sam Esmail say will time attention 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. Sam Esmail actor great you fun