“All around me I hear the pleasant chortle of Dutch. It sounds vaguely familiar, though I can't imagine why. Then it dawns on me. Dutch sounds exactly like English spoken backward! ...I wonder if I recorded someone speaking Dutch and played that backward, it would sound like regular English!”

“I like this world. I like drinking champagne. I like not smoking. I like Dutch people speaking Dutch.”

“I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch—I said it in German and Greek;But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)That English is what you speak!”

“I don't have an English accent because this is what English sounds like when spoken properly.”

“During the settling of the American colonies, it was said that the Spaniards would first build a church, the Dutch would first build a fort and the English a tavern. Welcome to Charleston, an English colony founded in 1670.”

“Just so you know, I speak English. You don’t have to macho-speak with shit like ‘you with me’ after you macho-speak with a bunch of bossing me around. I get you. I’m with you. Or if I’m not, I’ll tell you.”“Noted,” he muttered but sounded like he was smiling. I made the diplomatic decision not to look.”