Patti Smith still thinks South Jersey is ‘magical.’ A new interview as the rock icon comes home.

Patti Smith is looking back, and coming home.

Smith, the 78-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter, was born in Chicago and lived in Philadelphia before moving to Deptford and Pitman in Gloucester County for her South Jersey youth and young adulthood.

She returns to the Garden State on Monday for a sold-out appearance at the McCarter Theater in Princeton in support of her latest book, “Bread of Angels: A Memoir.” A bracingly intimate self-portrait rendered in vivid prose, “Bread of Angels” was released in November via Penguin Random House.

Smith spoke with NJ Advance Media about the book, her New Jersey roots and, after recently wrapping a tour commemorating the 50th anniversary of her iconic 1975 “Horses” LP, what comes next.

Q: What made now the right time to tell this chapter of your story? Your last couple of books, “Year of the Monkey” and “Book of Days,” were both contemporary looks at where you’re at now.

A: The funny thing is I actually started this book nearly 10 years ago and wound up writing “Year of the Monkey” and putting together “Book of Days” while I put this book aside for a while. It wasn’t a book that I could write straight through. I had to rethink things and think about how I was going to present certain material. But I decided to do it for two reasons. One, there are many unauthorized books about me about my family, and a lot of them — even ones that praise certain things — have so much misinformation or even total fabrications that I just decided to write a book that sets certain things straight, without condemning anyone.

Also, so many people in my life died young: my husband (Fred “Sonic” Smith), my brother (Todd), my pianist (Richard Sohl), of course Robert Mapplethorpe. And I wanted them to be remembered. They didn’t live life long enough to speak for themselves or to see how the work evolved, so I wanted people to get some sense of what my husband was like, what my brother was like, and my family. And it’s truthfully a book of gratitude, to show gratitude for everyone, for my parents, my siblings, my teachers, other people that influenced me. I just decided it was time to write that, but I had to set it aside here and there and do other things and come back to it.

Q: One thing that struck me about the book is it has such a sense of place in what Philadelphia and South Jersey meant to you. Did you go back to Philly and South Jersey to reacquaint yourself with the geography?

A: A lot of these places are gone, they demolished a lot of the area in Germantown where I grew up. I have gone back with my sister, maybe seven or eight years ago. Some things still remained, like our old school. We were amazed to find that we had walked almost two-and-a-half miles to school every morning because there were no buses. We couldn’t believe how long that walk was.

Some things have remained, but I have such good memories of these places. They were so important to me. Just like New York City became almost another character in (the 2010 book) “Just Kids,” because we are formed by a certain place, we’re formed by the economic situation, the cultural aspect. I lived in Philadelphia and a lot of my aesthetic blossomed in Philadelphia. I loved photography at a very young age, seeing art in person at 12 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

But then in South Jersey, because it was very rural and a magical area, even if it was lower middle class, there was a certain magic to that area. It really fed my imagination. So, whether I went back or not, these places are very alive in my mind.

Q: You’re going to be in Princeton discussing the book. How do you feel about coming home to Jersey to talk about the book?

A: Well, I always love coming to New Jersey. Even when we recently did our tour, after playing in Philadelphia, I went to South Jersey to spend time with my sister I’m very close with, she still lives in South Jersey. I love Princeton. I didn’t live near Princeton, but there’s so much history there with John Nash and Einstein and it’s so, so beautiful there. I’m always happy to come back to New Jersey.

Q: One thing about your early childhood that is so clear in the book is the importance that books had for you, whether that’s “The Secret Garden” or the book of Irish fairy tales or “Silver Pennies.” In what was in a lot of ways a rough childhood art really seemed to provide you with both comfort and escape.

A: I’ve always loved books. I loved books before I could read them and my parents were avid readers, so I was very curious, even at 3, 4 years old as to what was in these books that kept their attention. And I started reading quite early. To be able to write a book and place it out into the world, still, to me, is the greatest privilege.

Q: There’s a passage early in the book where you find a photo of your father where he’s running a race, he’s breaking through a ribbon, and you say, “This is why I’m here, to break through walls and through ribbons.” Do you still feel like that’s your mission, in a way, to find walls and ribbons to break through?

A: Well, maybe not as big. I mean, I think that as an artist or as a person that’s always creating, whether it’s writing a poem or whatever it is, we’re always trying to break through some membrane. Maybe it isn’t a wall, maybe it’s just a part of our consciousness, but I always wanted to try to find something new or write something new or study something new. I don’t have, obviously, the same physical thrust as I did when I was younger. I’ve attempted to kick down a few walls. But at this point of my life, just need any barrier, it’s just to get through to the other side, to learn something new, to evolve, to find another line to a poem. So I guess, in a quieter way, I’m still attempting to break through.

Q: What’s next for you, in terms of writing or music?

A: Right now, I’m focused on my book and doing certain events for my book. It’s very hard for me to write when I’m on the road. The road is so external, it’s collaborative, a lot of travel. You’re putting yourself out, you’re constantly in communication with people, it’s more social. And writing, for me, is a lot more solitary and requires the space to just think for hours or be alone, and so it’s very difficult to do both. So now that my tour is finished, I’ll be able to concentrate on my writing. And I have three writing projects that I’m working on, all fiction I’m happy to say, so I have a lot of good work ahead of me.

“Patti Smith: Bread of Angels Book Tour” will take place at the McCarter Theater on Dec. 15. The event is sold out.