Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Thursday he was never approached about becoming chief justice around the time William Rehnquist died in 2005, but he said he wouldn’t have enjoyed the job anyway.

Scalia, who was the headliner at the annual dinner of the Federalist Society’s national convention, said he would have felt pressure to build consensus on the Court if he had become chief justice. That would have meant, he said, writing fewer fiery opinions and concurrences.