Why not check if the '--' exists before doing the split?

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $quotes = '/home/gtheys/quotes';

open(FILE, "<$quotes") || die "Badness: $quotes [$!]\n";

while (<FILE>) {
  chomp;

  my ($quote, $person);
  if (/--/) {
    ($quote, $person) = split /--/;
  } else {
    ($quote, $person) = ($_, '');
  }

  $quote =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
  $person =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
  print "$quote\t$person\n";
}
close FILE || die "Badness: $quotes [$!]\n";
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--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

"Perl makes the fun jobs fun
and the boring jobs bearable" - me