diff --git a/ucl/ast.go b/ucl/ast.go
index 2e0a493..2b58025 100644
--- a/ucl/ast.go
+++ b/ucl/ast.go
@@ -8,9 +8,30 @@ import (
 	"github.com/alecthomas/participle/v2/lexer"
 )
 
+type astStringStringSpan struct {
+	Pos   lexer.Position
+	Chars *string `parser:"@SingleChar"`
+}
+
+type astDoubleStringSpan struct {
+	Pos      lexer.Position
+	Chars    *string `parser:"@Char"`
+	Escaped  *string `parser:"| @Escaped"`
+	IdentRef *string `parser:"| @IdentRef"`
+}
+
+type astDoubleString struct {
+	Spans []astDoubleStringSpan `parser:"StringStart @@* StringEnd"`
+}
+
+type astSingleString struct {
+	Spans []astStringStringSpan `parser:"SingleStringStart @@* SingleStringEnd"`
+}
+
 type astLiteral struct {
-	Str *string `parser:"@String"`
-	Int *int    `parser:"| @Int"`
+	StrInter       *astDoubleString `parser:"@@"`
+	SingleStrInter *astSingleString `parser:"| @@"`
+	Int            *int             `parser:"| @Int"`
 }
 
 type astIdentNames struct {
@@ -91,7 +112,8 @@ var scanner = lexer.MustStateful(lexer.Rules{
 	"Root": {
 		{"Whitespace", `[ \t]+`, nil},
 		{"Comment", `[#].*`, nil},
-		{"String", `"(\\"|[^"])*"`, nil},
+		{"StringStart", `"`, lexer.Push("String")},
+		{"SingleStringStart", `'`, lexer.Push("SingleString")},
 		{"Int", `[-]?[0-9][0-9]*`, nil},
 		{"DOLLAR", `\$`, nil},
 		{"COLON", `\:`, nil},
@@ -106,6 +128,16 @@ var scanner = lexer.MustStateful(lexer.Rules{
 		{"PIPE", `\|`, nil},
 		{"Ident", `[-]*[a-zA-Z_][\w-]*`, nil},
 	},
+	"String": {
+		{"Escaped", `\\.`, nil},
+		{"StringEnd", `"`, lexer.Pop()},
+		{"IdentRef", `\$[-]*[a-zA-Z_][\w-]*`, nil},
+		{"Char", `[^$"\\]+`, nil},
+	},
+	"SingleString": {
+		{"SingleStringEnd", `'`, lexer.Pop()},
+		{"SingleChar", `[^']+`, nil},
+	},
 })
 var parser = participle.MustBuild[astScript](participle.Lexer(scanner),
 	participle.Elide("Whitespace", "Comment"))
diff --git a/ucl/eval.go b/ucl/eval.go
index 2d89ccf..1bb9a80 100644
--- a/ucl/eval.go
+++ b/ucl/eval.go
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ package ucl
 import (
 	"context"
 	"errors"
-	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 )
 
 type evaluator struct {
@@ -245,18 +245,64 @@ func (e evaluator) evalListOrHash(ctx context.Context, ec *evalCtx, loh *astList
 
 func (e evaluator) evalLiteral(ctx context.Context, ec *evalCtx, n *astLiteral) (Object, error) {
 	switch {
-	case n.Str != nil:
-		uq, err := strconv.Unquote(*n.Str)
+	case n.StrInter != nil:
+		sval, err := e.interpolateDoubleQuotedString(ctx, ec, n.StrInter)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-		return StringObject(uq), nil
+		return sval, nil
+	case n.SingleStrInter != nil:
+		sval, err := e.interpolateSingleQuotedString(ctx, ec, n.SingleStrInter)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		return sval, nil
 	case n.Int != nil:
 		return intObject(*n.Int), nil
 	}
 	return nil, errors.New("unhandled literal type")
 }
 
+func (e evaluator) interpolateSingleQuotedString(ctx context.Context, ec *evalCtx, s *astSingleString) (Object, error) {
+	var sb strings.Builder
+	for _, n := range s.Spans {
+		switch {
+		case n.Chars != nil:
+			sb.WriteString(*n.Chars)
+		}
+	}
+	return StringObject(sb.String()), nil
+}
+
+func (e evaluator) interpolateDoubleQuotedString(ctx context.Context, ec *evalCtx, s *astDoubleString) (Object, error) {
+	var sb strings.Builder
+	for _, n := range s.Spans {
+		switch {
+		case n.Chars != nil:
+			sb.WriteString(*n.Chars)
+		case n.Escaped != nil:
+			switch (*n.Escaped)[1:] {
+			case "\\":
+				sb.WriteByte('\\')
+			case "n":
+				sb.WriteByte('\n')
+			case "t":
+				sb.WriteByte('\t')
+			case "$":
+				sb.WriteByte('$')
+			default:
+				return nil, errors.New("unrecognised escaped pattern: \\" + *n.Escaped)
+			}
+		case n.IdentRef != nil:
+			identVal := (*n.IdentRef)[1:]
+			if v, ok := ec.getVar(identVal); ok && v != nil {
+				sb.WriteString(v.String())
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return StringObject(sb.String()), nil
+}
+
 func (e evaluator) evalSub(ctx context.Context, ec *evalCtx, n *astPipeline) (Object, error) {
 	pipelineRes, err := e.evalPipeline(ctx, ec, n)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/ucl/testbuiltins_test.go b/ucl/testbuiltins_test.go
index c3b08f8..0b7aaef 100644
--- a/ucl/testbuiltins_test.go
+++ b/ucl/testbuiltins_test.go
@@ -111,6 +111,18 @@ func TestBuiltins_Echo(t *testing.T) {
 			echo "world"	# command after this
 ;
 		`, want: "Hello\nworld\n"},
+		{desc: "interpolated string 1", expr: `set what "world" ; echo "Hello, $what"`, want: "Hello, world\n"},
+		{desc: "interpolated string 2", expr: `set what "world" ; echo "Hello, \$what"`, want: "Hello, $what\n"},
+		{desc: "interpolated string 3", expr: `echo "separate\nlines\n\tand tabs"`, want: "separate\nlines\n\tand tabs\n"},
+		{desc: "interpolated string 4", expr: `set what "Hello" ; set where "world" ; echo "$what, $where"`, want: "Hello, world\n"},
+		{desc: "interpolated string 5", expr: `
+			foreach [123 "foo" true ()] { |x|
+                echo "[[$x]]"
+			}
+		`, want: "[[123]]\n[[foo]]\n[[true]]\n[[]]\n"},
+		{desc: "single quote string 1", expr: `echo 'Hello, world'`, want: "Hello, world\n"},
+		{desc: "single quote string 2", expr: `echo 'No $vars here'`, want: "No $vars here\n"},
+		{desc: "single quote string 3", expr: `echo 'No \escape \nhere'`, want: "No \\escape \\nhere\n"},
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {