The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.

The saying frames artistic creation as an act that begins with a small initiating impulse (“a spark”) but must grow into something transformative (“a fire”). Rodin’s emphasis is not on technique alone but on the artist’s willingness to risk comfort, reputation, and even personal equilibrium in pursuit of the work. To be “consumed” suggests total commitment: the creator must submit to the demands of the emerging artwork, allowing it to reshape priorities and identity. The line also implies that genuine art is not manufactured safely or externally; it is “born” from an inner combustion—intensity, obsession, and sustained labor—where the artist’s own passion becomes both the fuel and the cost.