Typing those single quotes in a shell won't make any difference as far as rm is concerned (because it won't ever see them). However, some rm utilities are smart

Typing those single quotes in a shell won't make any difference as far as rm is concerned (because it won't ever see them). However, some rm utilities are smart enough to remove files, even if they resemble non-existing options. For others, the idiom is (either) "rm -- -file" or (preferably) "rm ./-file" although you can combine the both of them.