diff --git a/R/auth.R b/R/auth.R
index acd176b..b319f58 100644
--- a/R/auth.R
+++ b/R/auth.R
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ auth_setup <- function(instance = NULL, type = NULL, name = NULL, path = NULL, c
     while (is.null(instance) || instance == "") {
         instance <- rtoot_ask(prompt = "On which instance do you want to authenticate (e.g., \"mastodon.social\")? ", pass = FALSE)
     }
+    if(quoted_string(instance)){
+        instance <- substr(instance, 2, nchar(instance)-1)
+    }
     client <- get_client(instance = instance)
     if (!isTRUE(type %in% c("public", "user"))) {
         type <- c("public", "user")[rtoot_menu(choices = c("public", "user"), title = "What type of token do you want?", verbose = TRUE)]
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index d9723d3..7c78e43 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -265,3 +265,8 @@ break_process_request <- function(api_response, retryonratelimit = FALSE, verbos
     }
     return(FALSE)
 }
+
+## a function to determine if input to readline has been quoted or not
+quoted_string <- function(x){
+    (grepl("^\"", x) && grepl("\"$", x)) || (grepl("^'", x) && grepl("'$", x))
+}