It's very similar to something Feynman said when he found he won the Nobel Prize. I can't find the quote specifically, but he essentially said "is there any way to turn it down?" But he recognized that he couldn't and it was easier to just accept it. But he bemoaned that forever afterwards he was no longer Richard Feynman, he was Richard Feynman Nobel Prize winner. That is all from his book "What do you care what other people think?"