Two problem I can see:

• $foo{shift} is the same as $foo{'shift'} - you want $foo{(shift)}. This is what's causing your overwriting problem - everything is indexed under $whatever{'shift'}.
• bless \$self, ref $class || $class makes $self reference itself - hence it will never be garbage collected. Say hello to nasty memory leaks :-)

Fixing the above gives us...

package Quote;
use strict;
use warnings;

my (%phrase, %author, %approved);

sub new {
   my ($class, $args) = @_;
   my $self;
   $self = bless [], ref $class || $class;
   if (ref $args eq "HASH") {
       $self->phrase()      = $args->{phrase}     if exists $args->{ph
+rase};
       $self->author()      = $args->{author}     if exists $args->{au
+thor};
       $self->is_approved() = $args->{approved}   if exists $args->{ap
+proved};

   }
   $self;
}

sub phrase      : lvalue { $phrase{(shift)}; }
sub author      : lvalue { $author{(shift)}; }
sub is_approved : lvalue { $approved{(shift)}; }

sub DESTROY {
   my $self = shift;
   delete $phrase{$self};
   delete $author{$self};
   delete $approved{$self};
}


package QuotePlus;
use base qw(Quote);
use strict;
use warnings;

my(%date);

sub new {
   my ($class, $args) = @_;
   my $self = $class->SUPER::new($args);

   if (ref $args eq "HASH") {
       $self->date() = $args->{date} if exists $args->{date};
   }
   return $self;
}

sub date : lvalue { $date{(shift)}; }

sub DESTROY {
   my $self = shift;
   $self->SUPER::DESTROY();
   delete $date{$self};
}
[download]

Which I think does what you want.

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