Finally, Beckett leaned forward and said, "What can you tell me, Mr. Burroughs, about this cut-up method of yours?"
"Well, Mr. Beckett," Burroughs said, "what I do is take a page of my writing and a page of the Herald Tribune [or Rimbaud, etc.], I cut them up and then I put them back together, and I gradually decipher new texts. Then I might take a page of your writing, and line it up with what I already have, and do the same thing all over again."
Suddenly indignant, Beckett asked, "You're using other writer's words?"
"Words don't have brands on them the way cattle do," Burroughs said. "Ever hear of a word rustler?"
"You can't do that!" Beckett said. "You can't take my writing and mix it up with the newspapers."
"Well, I've done it," Burroughs said.
"That's not writing," Beckett snorted, "it's plumbing."

from 'Literary Outlaw'