diff --git a/lib/index.js b/lib/index.js
index aa40d56..6d07d99 100644
--- a/lib/index.js
+++ b/lib/index.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 var colors = require('colors');
 var path = require('path');
+var parse = require('shell-quote').parse;
 var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
 var watch = require('watch');
 
@@ -11,7 +12,7 @@ module.exports.tend = function(dir, rawCommand, options) {
   var ignoreHidden = options.ignoreHidden === true;
   var restart = options.restart === true;
 
-  var args = rawCommand.split(' ');
+  var args = parse(rawCommand);
   var command = args.shift();
   var executor = null;
   var timeout = null;
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 741bb74..8c33127 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "watch": "~0.10.0",
     "docopt": "~0.4.0",
-    "colors": "~0.6.2"
+    "colors": "~0.6.2",
+    "shell-quote": "^1.4.1"
   },
   "bin": {
     "tend": "bin/tend"