String name = "\"john\"";
You have to escape the second pair of quotation marks using the \ character in front. It might be worth looking at this link, which explains in some detail.
Other scenario where you set variable:
String name2 = "\""+name+"\"";
Sequence in console:
> String name = "\"john\"";
> name
""john""
> String name2 = "\""+name+"\"";
> name2
"""john"""