diff --git a/crates/uv-pypi-types/src/simple_json.rs b/crates/uv-pypi-types/src/simple_json.rs
index 5ad54dd42..6c0e8a2a0 100644
--- a/crates/uv-pypi-types/src/simple_json.rs
+++ b/crates/uv-pypi-types/src/simple_json.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::str::FromStr;
 
 use jiff::Timestamp;
@@ -86,9 +87,11 @@ impl<'de> Deserialize<'de> for File {
                         "filename" => filename = Some(access.next_value()?),
                         "hashes" => hashes = Some(access.next_value()?),
                         "requires-python" => {
-                            requires_python = access.next_value::<Option<&str>>()?.map(|s| {
-                                LenientVersionSpecifiers::from_str(s).map(VersionSpecifiers::from)
-                            });
+                            requires_python =
+                                access.next_value::<Option<Cow<'_, str>>>()?.map(|s| {
+                                    LenientVersionSpecifiers::from_str(s.as_ref())
+                                        .map(VersionSpecifiers::from)
+                                });
                         }
                         "size" => size = Some(access.next_value()?),
                         "upload-time" => upload_time = Some(access.next_value()?),
diff --git a/crates/uv/tests/it/pip_compile.rs b/crates/uv/tests/it/pip_compile.rs
index 20797f791..d1587f48b 100644
--- a/crates/uv/tests/it/pip_compile.rs
+++ b/crates/uv/tests/it/pip_compile.rs
@@ -16129,3 +16129,44 @@ fn respect_non_local_preference() -> Result<()> {
 
     Ok(())
 }
+
+/// See: <https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/12260>
+#[test]
+fn compile_quotes() -> Result<()> {
+    let context = TestContext::new("3.12");
+    let requirements_in = context.temp_dir.child("requirements.in");
+    requirements_in.write_str("tbump")?;
+
+    uv_snapshot!(context.filters(), windows_filters=false, context.pip_compile()
+        .arg("requirements.in")
+        .arg("--universal"), @r"
+    success: true
+    exit_code: 0
+    ----- stdout -----
+    # This file was autogenerated by uv via the following command:
+    #    uv pip compile --cache-dir [CACHE_DIR] requirements.in --universal
+    cli-ui==0.17.2
+        # via tbump
+    colorama==0.4.6
+        # via cli-ui
+    contextlib2==21.6.0
+        # via schema
+    docopt==0.6.2
+        # via tbump
+    schema==0.7.5
+        # via tbump
+    tabulate==0.8.10
+        # via cli-ui
+    tbump==6.11.0
+        # via -r requirements.in
+    tomlkit==0.11.8
+        # via tbump
+    unidecode==1.3.8
+        # via cli-ui
+
+    ----- stderr -----
+    Resolved 9 packages in [TIME]
+    ");
+
+    Ok(())
+}