diff --git a/lib/rubygems/yaml_serializer.rb b/lib/rubygems/yaml_serializer.rb
index 46e665196b2b..9d0f429375e6 100644
--- a/lib/rubygems/yaml_serializer.rb
+++ b/lib/rubygems/yaml_serializer.rb
@@ -95,6 +95,10 @@ def parse_node(base_indent)
 
         if stripped.start_with?("- ") || stripped == "-"
           parse_sequence(indent, anchor)
+        elsif stripped.start_with?("\"") && stripped.end_with?("\"")
+          parse_plain_scalar(indent, anchor)
+        elsif stripped.start_with?("'") && stripped.end_with?("'")
+          parse_plain_scalar(indent, anchor)
         elsif stripped =~ MAPPING_KEY_RE && !stripped.start_with?("!ruby/object:")
           parse_mapping(indent, anchor)
         elsif stripped.start_with?("!ruby/object:")
diff --git a/test/rubygems/test_gem_safe_yaml.rb b/test/rubygems/test_gem_safe_yaml.rb
index fbf19776405c..d6fef1d7de9f 100644
--- a/test/rubygems/test_gem_safe_yaml.rb
+++ b/test/rubygems/test_gem_safe_yaml.rb
@@ -318,6 +318,20 @@ def test_requirements_hash_converted_to_array
     assert_kind_of Hash, reqs
   end
 
+  def test_requirement_quote
+    yaml = <<~YAML
+      requirements:
+        - "system: arrow-glib>=25.0.0: amazon_linux: arrow-glib-devel"
+        - 'system: arrow-glib>=25.0.0: fedora: libarrow-glib-devel'
+    YAML
+
+    expected = [
+      "system: arrow-glib>=25.0.0: amazon_linux: arrow-glib-devel",
+      "system: arrow-glib>=25.0.0: fedora: libarrow-glib-devel",
+    ]
+    assert_equal expected, yaml_load(yaml)["requirements"]
+  end
+
   def test_rdoc_options_hash_converted_to_array
     # Some gemspecs incorrectly have rdoc_options: {} instead of rdoc_options: []
     yaml = <<~YAML