Hearing Patti Smith speak candidly is just as riveting as reading polished passages from her writing. The musician and author expresses herself in a way writers wished their drafted, written, and revised work would sound. Last night, in a conversation with Esquire's editor in chief David Granger to promote her new memoir, M Train, Smith wove together stories about surprising artistic influences (the Declaration of Independence), tales of her most memorable experiences with fame (her last concert in Florence, September 1979, where a ban on rock and roll had just been lifted), what brings her the most pride (her two kids, despite admitting she never wanted to be a parent), and the greatest advice she ever received ("Keep your name clean," courtesy of novelist William S. Burroughs). No matter the topic at hand, the city always emerged as the star of her anecdotes. Here, read the best of what New York had, and has, to offer in the legend's own words.

On celebrity culture in New York during the late '60s and '70s:

"In that time, the cult of celebrity in the '60s and '70s was really more reserved for movie stars or high socialites. Paparazzi they didn't care about Janis Joplin, they were looking for Jackie Kennedy. Robert [Mapplethorpe] and I lived in Chelsea Hotel, and all these people, whether it was Salvador Dali or Janis Joplin, everyone had the same rooms but some of them were just bigger. The economic thing was me and Robert had the smallest room, Janis had three or four rooms. We all dressed the same, we all listened to the same music, we were all against the Vietnam War, there was kinship and we didn't have that same cult of celebrity. We didn't have everyone wanting to take everybody's picture. We were just all people. Sometimes people accuse me of name dropping, they say 'Boy, your book is full of name dropping,' and I say, 'Yeah, but we were just regular people. Friends.' Sam Shepard was on the rise but he was just himself. Jim Carroll, he was an unknown poet. Robert and I were unknown. We were just living our lives."

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On New York in the '70s versus present-day:

"It certainly isn't the place I knew when I was young, we had no money, the city was bankrupt, it was filled with cockroaches, a lot of rats, it was a bit gritty, and it was cheap to live here, really cheap. You can have a bookstore job and a little apartment in the East Village. There were so many of us, so many like minds. You can't do that now."

On whether she thinks NYC is still welcoming to artists and "dreamers":

"No. No I don't. I can't speak for new generations because they probably have their way of negotiating all of this, but I can just say it doesn't welcome people that have very little, that just want to get a little job and have a little practice place to play with their band. I mean, all of my band left New York because they couldn't afford to live there. We lost our practice place. I lost my art studio because all of our spaces were taken by entrepreneurs with a lot of money. But it's still a wonderful city, a great city, it's just, I guess, if you're scrappy you have to find a new way to get around in it."

On who her "style icon" was:

"Well we didn't have the phrase 'style icon' when I was young, but I have to say I really copied Bob Dylan when I was younger, a little bit of Bob Dylan or a lot of Bob Dylan and the French symbolist poets, I liked how they dressed, and Catholic school boys."

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On her favorite cup of coffee in New York:

"This would be surprising, but there's an Israeli cafe called 12 Chairs and they make black coffee. It's Italian coffee. It's not really great, but it's not horrible. It's actually just a good cup of black coffee. It always tastes the same, I can always count on it, and it's always hot. I don't require a lot of gourmet stuff because, often, [with] gourmet coffee, somebody takes all the trouble to make it gourmet coffee, then it's only lukewarm and too strong. I like really hot coffee not too strong. So, 12 Chairs fits the bill."

On what remains of her favorite New York spots:

"I think I still love Tompkins Square Park and I love St. Mark's Church. They still look like how they always did. Whenever I see St. Mark's Church or B&H...I guess what I'm saying is I like stuff that survived. I like seeing Russ & Daughters, you know, I just see these places and I feel so touched that they're still there."

On her daily routine:

"I get up and if I feel out of sorts I'll do some exercises, I'll feed my cat then I go get my coffee, take a notebook and write for a couple of hours. Then I just roam around. I try to take long walks and things like that, but I just kill time until something good is on TV. I know that some people have different personas for the different things they do, and I'm not criticizing that, maybe it's a good thing, but I'm the same old person, so I take everything in stride. I might start the day like that and then think 'Oh! I have to leave because I got to give a medal to Joan Baez'. And then I go to Berlin and look for coffee there, just moseying through."

Kristina Rodulfo Beauty Director Kristina Rodulfo is the Beauty Director of Women's Health—she oversees beauty coverage across print and digital and is an expert in product testing, identifying trends, and exploring the intersections of beauty, wellness, and culture.

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