The morning TV shows are pretty good about interviewing authors, God bless them. Unfortunately a lot of TV hosts, as well as print and online journalists, don’t like to interview writers, with the exception of authors of topical, usually controversial political nonfiction. I don’t completely blame the journalists. To properly prepare, they have to read an entire book. That’s a tough ask. Also, a lot of writers are deadly on TV. They go on and on until it’s time for the blessed relief of a pharmaceutical or insurance commercial.

The nicest reporters—to me—are Al Roker, Hoda Kotb, and Gayle King. They ask smart questions and they’re not there to make themselves look good. They’re fair. They like books and they read a lot.

Matt Lauer conducted one of the best interviews and then, later, one of the worst interviews I’ve ever had. Early on, I did a twenty-minute segment with him on CNBC. He asked thoughtful questions, listened to the answers, then asked smart follow-up questions. That’s rare on television, trust me. On the other hand, one time on the Today show, he read a couple of generic lines about Alex Cross—something like “Alex Cross walked along M Street in Georgetown,” blah-blah-blah—then asked me which of my Alex Cross novels the totally nondescript passage had come from. To his credit, Matt apologized at the end of the segment.

During the book tour with President Clinton, I appeared early one morning on Squawk Box. I like the show and I like the hosts. But occasionally they have a guest host and that morning it was Ken Langone, who was one of the founders of Home Depot.

I sat down next to Langone. We were twenty seconds from the end of a commercial break, about to go on live.

He leaned in close and said, “Why would you write a book with that bum Bill Clinton?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. So here’s what I said to Langone, who is a big donor to NYU’s hospitals; the NYU Langone Medical Center is named for him and his wife. “Ken, if you go there during our interview, I’m going to talk on national TV about what a bad experience I had at the Langone Medical Center.”

Langone never said one word during the interview. The other Squawk Box hosts took over.

When the segment was done, Langone leaned in close again. “What happened to you at my hospital?”

I told him, “Ken, I was never at your hospital. Have a nice day.”