WIGGHAM ''To tell you the truth, at the time of the appointment, I wasn't sure that I wanted it. So certainly I did not volunteer for it. I did not ask for it and I was not seeking it.'' - Outgoing Civil Service Secretary Barrie Wiggham explaining the circumstances of his appointment as head of the Hongkong Economic and Trade Office in Washington. CHEN ''The appointment is an attempt to create a united front and to isolate those who support Patten's blueprint.'' - Executive Councillor Professor Edward Chen Kwan-yiu explaining why Hongkong liberals were not included in the latest batch of Hongkong advisers to Beijing announced this week. PATTEN ''If China wishes to make administrative arrangements to try to help it discharge its responsibilities from the middle of 1997 more effectively, then so be it.'' - Governor Chris Patten on China's proposed ''second stove''. GARAYBLAS ''As long as we are in office we will continue doing this. We will not stop until Ermita is turned into a ghost town.'' - Rafaelito Garayblas, head of the Manila City Hall taskforce established last year to clean up the city's notorious red lightdistrict. DUFFY ''It would appear, however surprising it may be, that the jury accepted what you gave in your affirmation. That would also have accounted for their acquittal of Patrick Wong.'' - Mr Justice Leonard to Kitty Yu Mo-ling who was convicted of the manslaughter of Cathay Pacific flight attendant Brenda Wong Tze-kwan, after her co-defendant and recent convert to the Children of God sect, Patrick David Wong, was acquitted. Yu took the blame for the crime. BARKER ''People seem to think I have a great deal of money. But his estate is completely penniless.'' - Jeanne Barker, 60, widow of disgraced judge Dennis Barker, who died broke after he was forced to retire to Cyprus when he acquitted six defendants in the Carrian fraud trials in 1988. McCARTHY ''We were back where we were when I was kidnapped. Yes, we love each other. Yes, we live together.'' - British journalist and former hostage John McCarthy announcing plans to marry scriptwriter Jill Morrell, who had campaigned for his release during the five years he was held hostage in Beirut. LORD ''Americans cannot forget Tiananmen Square.'' - US president Bill Clinton's top Asian policy adviser Winston Lord outlining his views on China and Hongkong during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington. BOLGER ''I mean I don't go to Linda McCartney for advice on these things, no. She can go running around the world doing what she likes, being a spoilt rich girl, I guess.'' - New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger reacting to ex-Beatles wife and vegetarian Linda McCartney's comment that he was not ''very bright'' because he ran a beef farm.
