Seems like this could be a useful application of Text::Balanced...

I don't know if this helps, but anyway:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Text::Balanced qw( extract_quotelike );

for ( 
      'O\'Reilly, \'Tim\' "Timmy"',
      'q # an octothorpe: \# (not the end of the q!) #',
      "'SELECT name FROM DUAL;'",
      '  "You said, \"Use sed\"."  ',
    ) {
  my ($extracted, $remainder) = extract_quotelike;
  print "STRING: $_\n";
  print "  TOOK: $extracted\n";
  print "  LEFT: $remainder\n";
  print " ERROR: $@->{error}\n" if $@;
}
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"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack."