Because [writers] Dan Weiss and David Benioff have done such a great job in adapting them, that's what we work with. It serves no purpose to anybody for actors to come onto a set with a well-thumbed copy of the source material and start querying why this or that line has been left out of the script. It's probably been left out for a good reason.
Anytime you do a story that has an impact beyond that day's headlines and in what I regard as a very positive direction there has to be a certain amount of pride.