# Use this one if you'd like to account for backslashed quotes
my @matches = $string =~

/
((?:
	(?:
		' (?:
  			  (?>[^\\']*)
  			| \\ .
  		) '
	) | \\ . | [^\s'\\]*
)+)
/gx;


# This one does not take backslashed quotes into account
#/
#((?:
#	  ' [^']* '
#	| [^\s']*
#)+)
#/gx;

# because of the [^\s']*, you'll have matches weaved into your data ''
@matches = grep{$_}@matches;