As an electoral officer, I have never in my life participated in any election but duty came calling.

By the time I stood for Parliament I was already carrying a walking stick, and the combination of my illness and my sense of withdrawal from a belief in a kind of Britain I would have preferred to see meant that I was no longer satisfied with such a (political) role: it wasn't creative enough, it didn't satisfy me. I simply didn't fit the bill in the end. Although I was a Labour candidate I didn't even vote in that election. I was probably the only candidate who didn't vote for his party.

Actually you’ve never voted in a primary except once in your entire life,” Bossie said, citing the record.

There was no use for me to say yes because I am not a politician. Say, for example, I was elected and a situation came up where I was told I had to compromise. I could never do that; I can't compromise.

I hereby state, and mean all I say, that I never have been and never will be a candidate for President; that if nominated by either party I should peremptorily decline; and even if unanimously elected I should decline to serve.

I did not desire to become a politician or a presidential candidate. I think it is my fate, shaped by the conditions of an era.

I have never knew what it was to sacrifice my own judgment to gratify any party and I have no doubt of the time being close at hand when I will be rewarded for letting my tongue speak what my heart thinks. I have suffered myself to be politically sacrificed to save my country from ruin and disgrace and if I am never again elected I will have the gratification to know that I have done my duty.

But when I didn’t win the election ..

I used to say, 'If they die, I will also die'.

I never voted for anybody. I always voted against.

I did not enter politics to be involved in this kind of operation. But who did? And I have learned that leadership is, more often than not, the art of choosing the least worst among evils.

I always wanted to get into politics, but I was never light enough to make the team.

I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.

I had previously stated on many occasions that I would not run in the 2016 presidential election. But at this crucial moment, it was a decision I had no choice but to make in order to improve the health of Taiwan's democracy.