title: Why doesn't this __repr__ function return a string?
body: <pre><code>class Person:
      greeting = 'Hello'
      def __repr__(self):
          return self.greeting
  
  &gt;&gt;&gt; Sam = Person()
  &gt;&gt;&gt; Sam.greeting
  'Hello'
  &gt;&gt;&gt; Sam
  Hello
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am having difficulty understanding why the __repr__ function returns self.greeting without quotes. Any help is greatly appreciated.</p>