diff --git a/statement_parser.go b/statement_parser.go
index 53117941..c58b25db 100644
--- a/statement_parser.go
+++ b/statement_parser.go
@@ -61,6 +61,112 @@ func parseParameters(sql string) (string, []string, error) {
 	return findParams('?', sql)
 }
 
+// Skips all whitespaces from the given position and returns the
+// position of the next non-whitespace character or len(sql) if
+// the string does not contain any whitespaces after pos.
+func skipWhitespaces(sql []rune, pos int) int {
+	for ; pos < len(sql); pos++ {
+		c := sql[pos]
+		if c == '-' && len(sql) > pos+1 && sql[pos+1] == '-' {
+			// This is a single line comment starting with '--'.
+			skipSingleLineComment(sql, pos+2)
+		} else if c == '#' {
+			// This is a single line comment starting with '#'.
+			skipSingleLineComment(sql, pos+1)
+		} else if c == '/' && len(sql) > pos+1 && sql[pos+1] == '*' {
+			// This is a multi line comment starting with '/*'.
+			skipMultiLineComment(sql, pos)
+		} else if !unicode.IsSpace(c) {
+			break
+		}
+	}
+	return pos
+}
+
+// Skips the next character, quoted literal, quoted identifier or comment in
+// the given sql string from the given position and returns the position of the
+// next character.
+func skip(sql []rune, pos int) (int, error) {
+	if pos >= len(sql) {
+		return pos, nil
+	}
+	c := sql[pos]
+
+	if c == '\'' || c == '"' || c == '`' {
+		// This is a quoted string or quoted identifier.
+		return skipQuoted(sql, pos, c)
+	} else if c == '-' && len(sql) > pos+1 && sql[pos+1] == '-' {
+		// This is a single line comment starting with '--'.
+		return skipSingleLineComment(sql, pos+2), nil
+	} else if c == '#' {
+		// This is a single line comment starting with '#'.
+		return skipSingleLineComment(sql, pos+1), nil
+	} else if c == '/' && len(sql) > pos+1 && sql[pos+1] == '*' {
+		// This is a multi line comment starting with '/*'.
+		return skipMultiLineComment(sql, pos), nil
+	}
+	return pos + 1, nil
+}
+
+func skipSingleLineComment(sql []rune, pos int) int {
+	for ; pos < len(sql) && sql[pos] != '\n'; pos++ {
+	}
+	return min(pos+1, len(sql))
+}
+
+func skipMultiLineComment(sql []rune, pos int) int {
+	// Skip '/*'.
+	pos = pos + 2
+	// Search for the first '*/' sequence. Note that GoogleSQL does not support
+	// nested comments, so any occurrence of '/*' inside the comment does not
+	// have any special meaning.
+	for ; pos < len(sql); pos++ {
+		if sql[pos] == '*' && len(sql) > pos+1 && sql[pos+1] == '/' {
+			return pos + 2
+		}
+	}
+	return pos
+}
+
+func skipQuoted(sql []rune, pos int, quote rune) (int, error) {
+	isTripleQuoted := len(sql) > pos+2 && sql[pos+1] == quote && sql[pos+2] == quote
+	if isTripleQuoted {
+		pos += 3
+	} else {
+		pos += 1
+	}
+	for ; pos < len(sql); pos++ {
+		c := sql[pos]
+		if c == quote {
+			if isTripleQuoted {
+				// Check if this is the end of the triple-quoted string.
+				if len(sql) > pos+2 && sql[pos+1] == quote && sql[pos+2] == quote {
+					return pos + 3, nil
+				}
+			} else {
+				// This was the end quote.
+				return pos + 1, nil
+			}
+		} else if len(sql) > pos+1 && c == '\\' && sql[pos+1] == quote {
+			// This is an escaped quote (e.g. 'foo\'bar').
+			// Note that in raw strings, the \ officially does not start an
+			// escape sequence, but the result is still the same, as in a raw
+			// string 'both characters are preserved'.
+			pos += 1
+		} else if !isTripleQuoted && c == '\n' {
+			break
+		}
+	}
+	return 0, spanner.ToSpannerError(status.Errorf(codes.InvalidArgument, "SQL statement contains an unclosed literal: %s", string(sql)))
+}
+
+func min(a, b int) int {
+	if a < b {
+		return a
+	}
+	return b
+}
+
 // RemoveCommentsAndTrim removes any comments in the query string and trims any
 // spaces at the beginning and end of the query. This makes checking what type
 // of query a string is a lot easier, as only the first word(s) need to be
diff --git a/statement_parser_test.go b/statement_parser_test.go
index 5262bf9b..9453d682 100644
--- a/statement_parser_test.go
+++ b/statement_parser_test.go
@@ -989,6 +989,170 @@ func TestFindParams_Errors(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestSkip(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		input   string
+		pos     int
+		skipped string
+		invalid bool
+	}{
+		{
+			input:   "",
+			skipped: "",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "1 ",
+			skipped: "1",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "12 ",
+			skipped: "1",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "12 ",
+			pos:     1,
+			skipped: "2",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "12",
+			pos:     2,
+			skipped: "",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'foo'  ",
+			skipped: "'foo'",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'foo''bar'  ",
+			skipped: "'foo'",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'foo'  'bar'  ",
+			skipped: "'foo'",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'foo''bar'  ",
+			pos:     5,
+			skipped: "'bar'",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   `'foo"bar"'  `,
+			skipped: `'foo"bar"'`,
+		},
+		{
+			input:   `"foo'bar'"  `,
+			skipped: `"foo'bar'"`,
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "`foo'bar'`  ",
+			skipped: "`foo'bar'`",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'''foo'bar'''  ",
+			skipped: "'''foo'bar'''",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'''foo\\'bar'''  ",
+			skipped: "'''foo\\'bar'''",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'''foo\\'\\'bar'''  ",
+			skipped: "'''foo\\'\\'bar'''",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'''foo\\'\\'\\'bar'''  ",
+			skipped: "'''foo\\'\\'\\'bar'''",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "```foo`bar```  ",
+			skipped: "```foo`bar```",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   `"""foo"bar"""  `,
+			skipped: `"""foo"bar"""`,
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "-- comment",
+			skipped: "-- comment",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "-- comment\nselect * from foo",
+			skipped: "-- comment\n",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "# comment",
+			skipped: "# comment",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "# comment\nselect * from foo",
+			skipped: "# comment\n",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "/* comment */",
+			skipped: "/* comment */",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "/* comment */ select * from foo",
+			skipped: "/* comment */",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "/* comment /* GoogleSQL does not support nested comments */ select * from foo",
+			skipped: "/* comment /* GoogleSQL does not support nested comments */",
+		},
+		{
+			// GoogleSQL does not support dollar-quoted strings.
+			input:   "$tag$not a string$tag$ select * from foo",
+			skipped: "$",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "/* 'test' */ foo",
+			skipped: "/* 'test' */",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "-- 'test' \n foo",
+			skipped: "-- 'test' \n",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'/* test */' foo",
+			skipped: "'/* test */'",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'foo\\''  ",
+			skipped: "'foo\\''",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "r'foo\\''  ",
+			pos:     1,
+			skipped: "'foo\\''",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'''foo\\'\\'\\'bar'''  ",
+			skipped: "'''foo\\'\\'\\'bar'''",
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'foo\n'  ",
+			invalid: true,
+		},
+		{
+			input:   "'''foo\n'''  ",
+			skipped: "'''foo\n'''",
+		},
+	}
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		pos, err := skip([]rune(test.input), test.pos)
+		if test.invalid && err == nil {
+			t.Errorf("missing expected error for %s", test.input)
+		} else if !test.invalid && err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("got unexpected error for %s: %v", test.input, err)
+		} else {
+			skipped := test.input[test.pos:pos]
+			if skipped != test.skipped {
+				t.Errorf("skipped mismatch\nGot:  %v\nWant: %v", skipped, test.skipped)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 var fuzzQuerySamples = []string{"", "SELECT 1;", "RUN BATCH", "ABORT BATCH", "Show variable Retry_Aborts_Internally", "@{JOIN_METHOD=HASH_JOIN SELECT * FROM PersonsTable"}
 
 func init() {