diff --git a/Cabal/src/Distribution/Lex.hs b/Cabal/src/Distribution/Lex.hs
index 4c8eb8f6734..753d6ce4d36 100644
--- a/Cabal/src/Distribution/Lex.hs
+++ b/Cabal/src/Distribution/Lex.hs
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
 -- |
 -- Module      :  Distribution.Lex
 -- Copyright   :  Ben Gamari 2015-2019
@@ -12,39 +10,38 @@ module Distribution.Lex
   ( tokenizeQuotedWords
   ) where
 
-import Distribution.Compat.DList
 import Distribution.Compat.Prelude
 import Prelude ()
 
 -- | A simple parser supporting quoted strings.
 --
 -- Please be aware that this will only split strings when seeing whitespace
--- outside of quotation marks, i.e, @"foo\"bar baz\"qux quux"@ will be
--- converted to @["foobar bazqux", "quux"]@.
+-- outside of quotation marks;
+--
+-- > foo"bar baz"qux quux
+--
+-- >>> tokenizeQuotedWords "foo\"bar baz\"qux quux"
+-- ["foobar bazqux","quux"]
 --
--- This behavior can be useful when parsing text like
--- @"ghc-options: -Wl,\"some option with spaces\""@, for instance.
+-- This behavior can be useful when parsing text like;
+--
+-- > ghc-options: -Wl,"some option with spaces"
+--
+-- >>> tokenizeQuotedWords "ghc-options: -Wl,\"some option with spaces\""
+-- ["ghc-options:","-Wl,some option with spaces"]
 tokenizeQuotedWords :: String -> [String]
-tokenizeQuotedWords = filter (not . null) . go False mempty
+tokenizeQuotedWords xs = repack $ foldr alg (const ([] :| [])) xs False
   where
-    go
-      :: Bool
-      -- \^ in quoted region
-      -> DList Char
-      -- \^ accumulator
-      -> String
-      -- \^ string to be parsed
-      -> [String]
-    -- \^ parse result
-    go _ accum []
-      | [] <- accum' = []
-      | otherwise = [accum']
-      where
-        accum' = runDList accum
-    go False accum (c : cs)
-      | isSpace c = runDList accum : go False mempty cs
-      | c == '"' = go True accum cs
-    go True accum (c : cs)
-      | c == '"' = go False accum cs
-    go quoted accum (c : cs) =
-      go quoted (accum <> singleton c) cs
+    repack :: NonEmpty String -> [String]
+    repack (zs :| acc) = if null zs then acc else zs : acc
+
+    alg
+      :: Char -- current character
+      -> (Bool -> NonEmpty String) -- continuation, depending on whether we are in a quoted region or not
+      -> Bool -- are we in a quoted region?
+      -> NonEmpty String
+    alg '"' rest mode = rest (not mode)
+    alg c rest False
+      | isSpace c = [] :| repack (rest False)
+    alg c rest mode = case rest mode of
+      w :| ws -> (c : w) :| ws