use strict;
use warnings;

sub dequote {
   local $_ = @_ ? $_[0] : $_;
   s/^"//;
   s/"$//;
   s/\\(.)/$1/g;
   return $_;
}

$_ = 'abcd';
/\G .. /gcx;
print(pos(), "\n");

dequote('"John \"Foo\" Bar"');

print(pos(), "\n");