"Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the sun, to pacify Hell, to identify the primordial spark, to feed on the marrow of the volcano,. It's not the tobacco we're after but the fire. When we smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance, a ritual as ancient as lightning.
Does that mean that chain smokers are religious fanatics? You must admit there's a similarity.
The lung of the smoker is a naked virgin thrown as a sacrafice into the godfire."
~Tom Robbins