ruby code for modifying outer quotes on strings?

Question

Does anyone know of a Ruby gem (or built-in, or native syntax, for that matter) that operates on the outer quote marks of strings?

I find myself writing methods like

Answer 1

This might 'splain how to remove and add them:

str1 = %["We're not in Kansas anymore."]
str2 = %['He said, "Time flies like an arrow, Fruit flies like a banana."']

puts str1
puts str2

puts

puts str1.sub(/\A['"]/, '').sub(/['"]\z/, '')
puts str2.sub(/\A['"]/, '').sub(/['"]\z/, '')

puts 

str3 = "foo"
str4 = 'bar'

[str1, str2, str3, str4].each do |str|
  puts (str[/\A['"]/] && str[/['"]\z/]) ? str : %Q{"#{str}"}
end

The original two lines:

# >> "We're not in Kansas anymore."
# >> 'He said, "Time flies like an arrow, Fruit flies like a banana."'

Stripping quotes:

# >> We're not in Kansas anymore.
# >> He said, "Time flies like an arrow, Fruit flies like a banana."

Adding quotes when needed:

# >> "We're not in Kansas anymore."
# >> 'He said, "Time flies like an arrow, Fruit flies like a banana."'
# >> "foo"
# >> "bar"