“Is. English. Not. Your. Native. Language?" Grim spoke each word separately, and strung each syllable out.Nick hated it when he did that."Oh, how silly of me," Grim continued. "I forgot Stupid is your native tongue.”

“Wamblecropt is the most exquisite word in the English language. Say it. Each syllable is intolerably beautiful.”

“We, Brandy and Alfa and me, we've been speaking English as a second language so long that we've forgotten it as our first.I have no native tongue.”

“Oh, did I mention that he's Spanish, as in from Spain, and that he occasionally slips into his native tongue? (Add your own sexual innuendo here. It's just too easy for me. Really.) He's from Madrid but has lived here for more than a decade, long enough to master English, but without flattening his Castilian quirks. Who knew a lispy accent could be so manly? So damn sexy? I hear those "ths" clinging to his tongue and go loco.”

“Their throat muscles shifted sharply when they spoke, as if separately manufacturing each word.”

“Here I'd been thinking that just because someone spoke English we'd understand each other. But I guess there are languages within languages, and those can be foreign, too, even when you think you're understanding each other.”