In a Comic Con interview, author George R. R. Martin (whose saga A Song of Ice and Fire is being adapted for the Game of Thrones series on HBO) lists some of the scenes from the first book that were cut from season 1.

The moment which Martin admits to missing most was from early on in the book, right before Joffrey confronts Arya and the butcher’s boy by the river. Martin explains:

There’s a scene before where Sansa says, “Well, the Queen’s invited us to eat lemon cakes.” And Arya says, “I don’t like the Queen, I’m going out with Mycah,” and also says, you know, “Oh, I’ve been hanging around with that butcher’s boy,” and they have this little moment there. And, you know, it obviously is not an essential scene. But it sets up what follows nicely and it’s a great character piece for two girls. And the reason I particularly miss that one is that was the audition scene. I’ve seen both Maisie and Sophie perform that scene and nail that scene in their audition tape. So I was really looking forward to seeing them do it in costume and all that. And then, of course, it got cut for [various] reasons.

He then goes on to discuss how, though he thinks it’s a budget issue, he would have liked more episodes per season:

I’ve said that before, so that’s no secret. I would have liked more than 10 hours too. I would have liked 12 hours, even more so for the second season. But it’s guess there’s a question of expense. You know, the other HBO shows do have 12 hours. It would have been nice if we also had 12 hours. I don’t know quite what goes on behind the scenes there and they’re in the discussions with HBO. And maybe it is a matter of scheduling too. Maybe they only had 10 hours free on Sunday night between the end of Big Love and the beginning of True Blood, I don’t know. I don’t know, but for whatever reason, that’s what they went with.

Finally, he talks about the episode which he has now finished writing, ‘Blackwater,’ to which he’s also made some cuts:

I’ve already made some cuts from the battle as portrayed in the book and probably more cuts will have to be made. But hopefully, we’ll still get some sort of an exciting battle there. But it’s very difficult. The Blackwater in particular contains every element designed to make it a nightmare, you know. There are thousands of characters. There are gigantic trebuchets. There is a river. There’s partly a naval battle. There are horses, a huge numbers of horses. A lot of characters involved. There’s fire.

We’re sure it’s going to look fantastic either way! Do you wish there were more episodes per season, or does 10 feel about right?

Read the full interview here at AOL TV.