“You say: 'Oh, please forgive'You say: 'Oh, live and let live.'But sorry doesn't help us.Sorry will not save us.Sorry is just a word you find so easy to say (so you say it anyway).Sorry doesn't help us.Sorry won't protect us.Sorry won't undo all the good gone wrong.”

“The word sorry doesn't mean the guilt is there and saying I forgive you doesn't mean the hurt has gone away.”

“So the question really is, Why doesn't that pain make you say, I won't do it again? When the pain is so bad that you have to say that, but you don't.”

“It doesn't matter how many times you say it. It'll still be true.''And it doesn't matter what you won't let me say, that'll still be true too.”

“Anna Quangel wishes she could stroke her husband's hand, but she doesn't dare. She just brushes it, as if by accident, and says, 'Oh, sorry, Otto!' He looks at her in surprise, but doesn't say anything. They walk on.”

“There are things you won't know unless you try to find out. it's possible to notice things without seeming to. You're not a kid who doesn't know what a word says unless someone tells him. And how many years have you gone on living like that?”