Bill Wilson wrote, "Before A.A, we were trying to drink God out of a bottle." . . . The alcoholic's craving can be associated with a romantic image, or a trembling in the belly, or the distinctive taste of a martini, or the anticipated tingling buzz in the brain, or the picture of cold wetness of the can in hand — or with no particular image at all. The variations are many. . . . To a large extent, the nature of the urge or compulsion depends on the predominant way each individual thinks.

James B. Nelson, Thirst: God and the Alcoholic Experience