![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4sAsLkqLFwMWyHUaRowrL3IA8uymW095d5o8pnhAxRJAkidxM_28HbGVoSb8MYKVPyYVRIpd8YQDO-caQ0THhHjjAc7iNjR4zE3k259q_mlFvEUb5zDQDMCXB3QqHxAUN2ZeX/s400/j0105178.i'm+sorry.gif)
"Love means never having to say you're sorry," is an oft-quoted
misquote from Erich Segal![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uhdWNoKkZxvzPLd6K58NC3Dpo0z7iyPB1LFIw-vED57IzPo_cRTcLMQPOF0IItxd_oASBQ5WDy15XCLCGZuWHcbdqOczyzk6iR8BL2LQKLGpx3bIX-WE5Q2AE_uzVczE4=s0-d)
's
Love Story
script. [Apparently, the line, as written, was, "Love means not ever having to say you're sorry."] I wholeheartedly disagree. In some circumstances, a sincere apology can go a long way.At some other times, apologizing constitutes
talking loud and saying nothing![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sq1QRFDyt64BCAySL19JPhTDU0FJbYOsaguAmy8jk4lCAdHLiGjXDY9kEBJUc8ZsFC6S3Q6QcgQGWgcPiqRUydl9iu875UeUtEh-77ZMXF4ymmfZQMNf1rUnPaC6Ps_eO8oAAxjIugh7obBAyc13eA35cw78nsKF6hOoT8cA0AmyFotbRTxZw3NokDVRC4vEI=s0-d)
. It is those instances - when it's better to keep one's sorries to oneself and, instead,
straighten up and fly right - that three prominent artists have addressed in popular publications and performances.
Ntozake Shange![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tlk6G6iWHVICTjq3O3b5TU6geTFoUPZQNWiphKuC9hy8decV0Ifzt-mS9yiZsGG7b6kSDbVAsHdqq1RFxsgUrLOVvmW8HCxUQ6JJdUDJieBhs7mr4-uXNGTCvOMtDPTImrtCPC0n6J=s0-d)
published
these lines (in 1977) and
staged them (in 1992) in:
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf
.
(Laurence Fishburne
, as)
Ike Turner![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sKCrqGEiBqtsQVX2KGciiBNA4dvAkZWIwTlLPilAaTjzHOyYKC5hNsidSDQxjkqpcOIEAZIw1wZJUWtaA0gi2oyfU7KWgM4A-Uwk9Yx758C12ooZcSwfXphyBsmCpURU0O6IPlevQhzOUR_AalQL928YCvq4NiRFlfGU-LXASRnSam6eGrlReuFK3Gi24E7oLrMTCCf54U-_gc2k57AoGq-x2pVEsUpG3IElEeRPe2h3oH5DbcAu6A0eFrcp_NrYEq=s0-d)
, snarled, "
Yeah, you sorry all right," before manhandling (
Angela Bassett,![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uhdWNoKkZxvzPLd6K58NC3Dpo0z7iyPB1LFIw-vED57IzPo_cRTcLMQPOF0IItxd_oASBQ5WDy15XCLCGZuWHcbdqOczyzk6iR8BL2LQKLGpx3bIX-WE5Q2AE_uzVczE4=s0-d)
as) his wife/performance partner
Tina Turner, in a scene from the 1993 biopic,
What's Love Got to Do With It?![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uhdWNoKkZxvzPLd6K58NC3Dpo0z7iyPB1LFIw-vED57IzPo_cRTcLMQPOF0IItxd_oASBQ5WDy15XCLCGZuWHcbdqOczyzk6iR8BL2LQKLGpx3bIX-WE5Q2AE_uzVczE4=s0-d)
Ultimately, the universe prevailed to right that wrong; it was Ike who was sorry when Tina pulled the plug on that discordant situation.
More recently,
Madonna sang
these lyrics to "
Sorry" (1995) (on her
Confessions
albums) and feigned some feisty fist- and foot-work to underscore her point.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uzAFFrDMOUPMrhw2g46n5hxqFC2_oD1NHIDYMTJ3VqquybLYuesZ9FMJ9UG3-MkPjtTGH2asb2qDETtCEg0imsuM4fB8sUjQcydSk8uPGW7LHg7nih5___L0k=s0-d)