![](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_t96crc_V-_77o2ZlKpF5mLsDbUE5qh9TaOCyu90qOYH09u4zajxAH20voAorEtP_l2aTOIVoRSSwzRMt9x4mXdWtNj5N3z6XHOnne45qPxRpYbuYyJ8RftM0GbfnAxrks=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_sw9jbZf6yggGaWJGupk3zpI0sZq7zcp1QNIFGM7WXKNZoBA94hBDah2BzbeMXZigRNncJJURk6DuUrSPa6kUN3GWl4U2tS_UBJbk5ehAgBusFs4AkkFb_DbFwVnZA6SS2mSbbu1CjPU8uig3Dlqq8dkCNIsCdINxxjmxYVZFWBzuRyD43ZO5rkDLMXWd2hP4I=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_sWPZ0hK7GvZdQKPZAf3_ukIV3tpfZZSsgO3Ec16gZQz_LU75Ft9xK3S97PXoV3RW-LdIN0ilZQIahF2Gg63QSEg3m5Qxs0QQMTX936Vjtzd-IwqC_CQpHhHeL87KGVnY086fTnyeJY=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_t-1oRMt0idMI0ZU7CEZmP0H_fif35FcYC5E3vHLWWKerlD7tvL0vITXXyKGSmC3VQJg4M0gfMZeRHszi3f5tz6TvoQAkPjFMdQ1PIlopXpzKN_e2awQ6bHofPdypamfyrql5b_R481nvoMJKj93cEY6AYS68s1_QyfUEqFAEAbAeTeznwhX5RMxz0bvVaV9hDIwVyNh2aa7X5fdfSG2FUjHUwJ3cd-te2rBS3hYRlnGlufZQ4tsGtFgiWgVKyaeqLW=s0-d)
, snarled, "
Yeah, you sorry all right," before manhandling (
Angela Bassett,![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t96crc_V-_77o2ZlKpF5mLsDbUE5qh9TaOCyu90qOYH09u4zajxAH20voAorEtP_l2aTOIVoRSSwzRMt9x4mXdWtNj5N3z6XHOnne45qPxRpYbuYyJ8RftM0GbfnAxrks=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_t96crc_V-_77o2ZlKpF5mLsDbUE5qh9TaOCyu90qOYH09u4zajxAH20voAorEtP_l2aTOIVoRSSwzRMt9x4mXdWtNj5N3z6XHOnne45qPxRpYbuYyJ8RftM0GbfnAxrks=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_vLl2Is4WTusxwV6RgIKDs3j8mBypYIwDqxbWBpPKklWFnnfHJdCgrawOUlC2QKJudl6rIlm0DDum7rcxoS_p1WyhwQnnepGRM4fSszgfbC8DL6qvmHuKuVZmk=s0-d)