Poetry is the fire burning in a person’s soul. This fire burns, warms and brings light . .
. There are some people who feel
the heat, others who feel the warmth, others who just see the light, and others
who do not even see the light .
. . But the true poet cannot help burning
painfully, and burning others. That’s
what it is all about.
Leo Tolstoy
Diary entry 28 Oct.
1870
As quoted in Rosamund Bartlett, Tolstoy: A Russian Life.
