diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/ast/AnnotationNode.java b/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/ast/AnnotationNode.java
index e7b9e05d2f..a7c69d8729 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/ast/AnnotationNode.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/ast/AnnotationNode.java
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ private static TypeNode annotationType(Class clazz) {
   // TODO(unsupported): Any args that do not consist of a single string. However, this can easily be
   // extended to enable such support.
   @Nullable
-  public abstract String description();
+  public abstract Expr descriptionExpr();
 
   @Override
   public void accept(AstNodeVisitor visitor) {
@@ -60,7 +60,13 @@ public static Builder builder() {
   public abstract static class Builder {
     public abstract Builder setType(TypeNode type);
 
-    public abstract Builder setDescription(String description);
+    public Builder setDescription(String description) {
+      return setDescriptionExpr(ValueExpr.withValue(StringObjectValue.withValue(description)));
+    }
+
+    // This will never be anything other than a ValueExpr-wrapped StringObjectValue because
+    // this setter is private, and called only by setDescription above.
+    abstract Builder setDescriptionExpr(Expr descriptionExpr);
 
     abstract AnnotationNode autoBuild();
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/writer/JavaWriterVisitor.java b/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/writer/JavaWriterVisitor.java
index 37df689d00..c3e238a085 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/writer/JavaWriterVisitor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/engine/writer/JavaWriterVisitor.java
@@ -170,8 +170,10 @@ public void visit(ScopeNode scope) {
   public void visit(AnnotationNode annotation) {
     buffer.append(AT);
     annotation.type().accept(this);
-    if (annotation.description() != null && !annotation.description().isEmpty()) {
-      buffer.append(String.format("(\"%s\")", annotation.description()));
+    if (annotation.descriptionExpr() != null) {
+      leftParen();
+      annotation.descriptionExpr().accept(this);
+      rightParen();
     }
     newline();
   }
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/gapic/composer/ServiceStubSettingsClassComposer.java b/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/gapic/composer/ServiceStubSettingsClassComposer.java
index 1eb5c7e714..2b35fcf842 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/gapic/composer/ServiceStubSettingsClassComposer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/api/generator/gapic/composer/ServiceStubSettingsClassComposer.java
@@ -354,6 +354,7 @@ private static List<Expr> createPagingStaticAssignExprs(
           String.format(
               "No method found for message type %s for method %s among %s",
               pagedResponseMessageKey, method.name(), messageTypes.keySet()));
+
       Field repeatedPagedResultsField = pagedResponseMessage.findAndUnwrapFirstRepeatedField();
       Preconditions.checkNotNull(
           repeatedPagedResultsField,