diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook.py b/lib/ansible/playbook.py
index a1e5ac2bf3..6c9ef9fb3f 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook.py
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ class PlayBook(object):
         async_seconds = int(task.get('async', 0))  # not async by default
         async_poll_interval = int(task.get('poll', 10))  # default poll = 10 seconds
 
-        tokens = shlex.split(action)
+        tokens = shlex.split(action, posix=False)
         module_name = tokens[0]
         module_args = tokens[1:]
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils.py b/lib/ansible/utils.py
index 7f602f88f9..9d0b68ff8e 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/utils.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils.py
@@ -260,12 +260,19 @@ def parse_yaml_from_file(path):
         raise errors.AnsibleError("file not found: %s" % path)
     return parse_yaml(data)
 
-def parse_kv(args):
+def unquote_string(string):
+    ''' remove single or double quotes from beginning/end of string'''
+    if (string.startswith('"') and string.endswith('"')) or \
+        (string.startswith("'") and string.endswith("'")):
+        return string[1:-1]
+    else:
+        return string
+
+def parse_kv(args, unquote=True):
     ''' convert a string of key/value items to a dict '''
     options = {}
     for x in args:
         if x.find("=") != -1:
             k, v = x.split("=")
-            options[k]=v
+            options[k]=unquote_string(v) if unquote else v
     return options
-