I think you are on the rite track with this, if you entered an apostrophe, single quote, or double quote into any of the settings values this could cause the problem you are reporting.
To fix this in the db directly you will need to access your db from the GUI tool that you use to administer your db. Do you use phpMyAdmin, SQLyog, MySQL Administrator, or a tool like that to access your db?
You will need to get into your db and take a look at the wa_settings table within it. In here you can see each setting by name and the value for it. If you see any single quotes you should remove them or replace them.
use this for double quote:
"
use this for single quote
‘
If you have a difficult time getting to your db to edit it you might have an easier time deleting the db and starting the process over if you do not have many items or categories in your store.