It contains a great deal of poetry written by the filmmaker's father Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky along with a fair amount of Tarkovsky's personal writings on his life and work, lectures and discussions during making of Andrei Rublev with a film history student named Olga Surkova, who later became a professional critic and helped in writing of this book.

Tarkovsky decided to write this book in part to explain, or give insight, to his puzzled audience on the nature of his films.

[2] Tarkovsky has also cited film critic Olga Surkova as an inspiration for the creation of the book and that discussions with her greatly influenced the work's content.

[2] Critical reception for Sculpting in Time has been positive, with the Slavic Review praising the book's translation, content, and layout.

[4] Writing for the Sunday Times', Ian Christie stated that he acknowledges that the book accomplishes Tarkovsky’s purpose, which was to give insight into his creative process and to explain to his audience the logic behind his films.