Author Malcolm Gladwell on his best-selling books

In an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent and anchor for CNN's "AC 360,"Anderson Cooper, author Malcolm Gladwell objects to critics who say he fails to credit other people's works, video above. As for the criticism that his writing reaches obvious conclusions, Gladwell agreed. "I'm putting ideas in a form that I can understand," he says. "If you're smarter than me, you shouldn't be reading my books."

The Tipping Point

Gladwell critiques his bestselling book, "The Tipping Point," and calls his explanation for why crime fell in New York, "too simplistic." If given the chance to re-write it, he says. "I'd write it quite differently."

Blink

Gladwell tells Cooper that his best-selling book "Blink" taught him to "never use your instincts." As Gladwell explains to Cooper, instincts or snap decisions encouraged him to stay out of his assistant hiring process: "You hire the person with whom you have chemistry, right? Chemistry is not relevant in that situation," Gladwell says. "So I have my old assistants, they hire their replacement."

Outliers

While discussing the inspiration behind the best-seller, "Outliers," Gladwell tells Cooper that a conversation with Bill Gates is what shaped his idea for the book. In speaking about Gates, Gladwell says. "He was so kind of honest about how he had achieved what he had achieved and so willing to kind of credit others and to point out all the structural things that broke his way."

Editor's Note: This segment was originally published Nov. 24, 2013