$re = '/\[(quote)\]?\s*(?:author)?=?(\S+)*/m';
$str = '[quote author=username link=1150111054/0#7 date=1150151926][/quote]
[quote] username link=1142890417/0#43 date=1156429613]This is a very simple test sentence.[/quote]
[quote=user name pid=123456]
Test.[/quote]
[quote] user name link=1142890417/0#43 date=1156429613][quote] username link=1142890417/0#43 date=1156429613]This is a very simple test sentence.[/quote]
This is a very simple test sentence.[/quote]
';
$subst = "[$1=$2]";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php