I gotta say, I totally get where he's coming from. I was a smoker for 15 years, including straight through art school, and I loved everything about it. It's a ritual, and it was part of what helped me work creatively.
...Until I started waking up coughing in the morning.
It's been about a decade since I last had a cigarette. My risks of lung cancer, COPD, and chronic emphysema are nearly back down to baseline levels. But even now cigarettes, cigars, and pipes smell amazing to me. If it wasn't for the fact that they would absolutely kill me (and weren't so goddamn expensive, thanks Obama), I'd start right up again. (OTOH, I try to run now, and that's not really compatible with smoking.)