the return value of select statement includes unwanted quote

["L Chou" <leahalbany(at)gmail(dot)com>]

Hi, I am writing perl code and using DBI to connect to the postgreSQL database.  I found that if the column type is varchar, then the return value of this column will always be double quoted.   Is there a way that I could remove the double quote from the return value?  since if I use a compound statement and used the return value to query the database, then PostgreSQL doen't recognize the double quote.  If I put extra single quote around the return value, then the value has extra two double quote around it, and it doesn't match any record in the database.  

Please advise if there is any way to remove the double quote.  

Thanks, 

Leah