Artistic creation is by definition a denial of death. Therefore it is optimistic, even if in an ultimate sense the artist is tragic.

There are no entertaining moments in [Mirror]. In fact I am categorically against entertainment in cinema: it is as degrading for the author as it is for the audience.

Tarkovsky, Time Within Time

The English edition of the Diaries is incomplete. Nostalghia.com provide translations from the Polish edition (see, in particular, those selections that pertain to the making of The Sacrifice.)