diff --git a/lib/environment.js b/lib/environment.js
index 800e940f..58eec896 100644
--- a/lib/environment.js
+++ b/lib/environment.js
@@ -14,6 +14,23 @@ const Store = require('./store');
 const resolver = require('./resolver');
 const TerminalAdapter = require('./adapter');
 
+/**
+ * Two-step argument splitting function that first splits arguments in quotes,
+ * and then splits up the remaining arguments if they are not part of a quote.
+ */
+function splitArgsFromString(argsString) {
+  let result = [];
+  const quoteSeparatedArgs = argsString.split(/(\x22[^\x22]*\x22)/).filter(x => x);
+  quoteSeparatedArgs.forEach(arg => {
+    if (arg.match('\x22')) {
+      result.push(arg.replace(/\x22/g, ''));
+    } else {
+      result = result.concat(arg.trim().split(' '));
+    }
+  });
+  return result;
+}
+
 /**
  * `Environment` object is responsible of handling the lifecyle and bootstrap
  * of generators in a specific environment (your app).
@@ -107,7 +124,7 @@ class Environment extends EventEmitter {
     super();
 
     args = args || [];
-    this.arguments = Array.isArray(args) ? args : args.split(' ');
+    this.arguments = Array.isArray(args) ? args : splitArgsFromString(args);
     this.options = opts || {};
     this.adapter = adapter || new TerminalAdapter();
     this.cwd = this.options.cwd || process.cwd();
@@ -376,7 +393,7 @@ class Environment extends EventEmitter {
     options = options || {};
 
     let args = options.arguments || options.args || _.clone(this.arguments);
-    args = Array.isArray(args) ? args : args.split(' ');
+    args = Array.isArray(args) ? args : splitArgsFromString(args);
 
     const opts = options.options || _.clone(this.options);
 
@@ -410,7 +427,7 @@ class Environment extends EventEmitter {
       args = this.arguments;
     }
 
-    args = Array.isArray(args) ? args : args.split(' ');
+    args = Array.isArray(args) ? args : splitArgsFromString(args);
     options = options || this.options;
 
     const name = args.shift();
diff --git a/test/environment.js b/test/environment.js
index 12bc88a3..96e4944b 100644
--- a/test/environment.js
+++ b/test/environment.js
@@ -55,6 +55,11 @@ describe('Environment', () => {
     it('instantiates a mem-fs instance', function () {
       assert.ok(this.env.sharedFs);
     });
+
+    it('takes multi-word arguments', () => {
+      const args = 'foo bar "foo bar" baz "bar foo"';
+      assert.deepEqual(new Environment(args).arguments, ['foo', 'bar', 'foo bar', 'baz', 'bar foo']);
+    });
   });
 
   describe('#help()', () => {