>In VS 2013, when you type in the designer, such as in a class, if you start a quote, it will automatically add the closing quote. This is highly irritating and causes problems when laying out the code. I am used to type those lines so fast that this is now slowing me down. Is there a way to avoid that?

I think Boris has given the answer.
ReSharper provided that behaviour by default in earlier VS versions. I didn't like it much at first but I now find I much prefer it. I think that, if you give yourself time to get used to it, you may find it more productive.....