Table 3 Additional quotes from participants

Theme 1: Perceptions of smoking

Feeling stigma or shame

“I feel trapped by them [cigarettes] and that makes me feel out of control”.—Female English-speaking

Theme 2: Changes in smoking status among participants

“And the closer I get to quitting, the more I enjoy every cigarette. It’s been my constant companion since I was 15 and now I’m in 73 now. So—I just love it”.—Male English-speaking

“The positive is that it feels good when I have a cigarette. I feel relaxed. The negative is that I have asthma and I know sooner or later it’s going to catch up to me and my lungs. I feel it. Cause I quit smoking. I have quit and started. When I quit I feel really good and then I started I still felt good but now during the change in season, I’m starting to feel my lungs are little more congested”.—Female English-speaking

“Bringing it to the brink of quit—that’s the hardest part. Because you’ve changed how you think about things when you go from 30 to 1 (referring to cigarettes). There’s a whole process of bringing it down to get ready. that’s the brink”.—Female English-speaking

Theme 3: Triggers

Bad mood

“I don’t smoke at work and it makes me moody. I try to do something else”.—Male Chinese-speaking

“I mean—I had gone through smoking cessation groups and this program and that program, and this thing and that things; like I tried everything. And I was done. But I couldn’t imagine life as a non-smoker”.—Female English-speaking

In combination with drink or meal

“I enjoy it with a glass of wine”.—Female Chinese-speaking

Theme 4: Barriers to cessation

Lack of stress management skills

“When I get stressed out and anxious and when I get anxious I find that it (smoking) calms me down. I used sort of to self-medicate. And it just helps that way. I’ve tried many different patches. Like I said, I tried that for a year and then when I start drinking, I end up with a pack of cigarettes and a way I go again”.—Male Chinese-speaking

“I quit a number of times, then something stressed me out and I started smoking. But every time, after the cessation group I did, I thought about every cigarette I think about what I am doing? I like smoking but everything but everything about it is bad… in my head”.—Female English-speaking

“I want to quit, but it was a physical addiction you crave it and you get quite stressed if you couldn’t have a smoke”.—Male Chinese-speaking

Lack of motivation to quit

“It’s something I cannot let go off and it’s on my mind even when I quit sometimes, it’s a steady awareness when I’m around smokers you know and I think a big part why it’s an addiction is no matter how healthy I get I still want to go back to it sometimes and I can rationalize a reason to smoke”.—Male English-speaking