When I decided to quit, it was because I knew that alcohol wasn't what I wanted it to be anymore. Of course I am nostalgic for my first year of drinking, when I didn't worry about having a problem and I had only good impressions of it. But I realised that when I asked myself what the last ten times I drank were like, I was unhappy during each of them. If I still enjoyed alcohol, quitting would have been a lot harder for me. I was drinking out of habit and thinking of dumb movie cliches like 'I need a stiff drink' and sometimes I still think about those. But I know that the truth is those are all lies now.
I wrote on a site for loneliness about this topic, but I didn't save it (or at least I can't find it) and I deleted it on the site because I didn't like them. But basically I described me and alcohol as friend's who drifted apart and who were keeping up a friendship needlessly. I think it is important to see this distinction of what alcohol is to you now as separate from what it was in the past. The 'alcoholic' in me knows that alcohol today is bad. The alcohol that was good simply doesn't exist anymore.
I like that fiveyearzen has brought this up, and I like what fiveyearzen did to overcome it.