diff --git a/cmd/test_program.go b/cmd/test_program.go
index 65dd8a3..971465e 100644
--- a/cmd/test_program.go
+++ b/cmd/test_program.go
@@ -13,10 +13,12 @@
 func main() {
 	bytes, err := ioutil.ReadAll(os.Stdin)
 	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatalf("Error during TOML read: %s", err)
 		os.Exit(2)
 	}
 	tree, err := toml.Load(string(bytes))
 	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatalf("Error during TOML load: %s", err)
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
 
@@ -24,6 +26,7 @@
 
 	if err := json.NewEncoder(os.Stdout).Encode(typedTree); err != nil {
 		log.Fatalf("Error encoding JSON: %s", err)
+		os.Exit(3)
 	}
 
 	os.Exit(0)
diff --git a/lexer.go b/lexer.go
index cc4dc08..abb6551 100644
--- a/lexer.go
+++ b/lexer.go
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@
 func (l *tomlLexer) lexKey() tomlLexStateFn {
 	l.ignore()
 	for r := l.next(); isKeyChar(r); r = l.next() {
-		if (r == '#') {
+		if r == '#' {
 			return l.errorf("keys cannot contain # character")
 		}
 	}
@@ -286,11 +286,26 @@
 	l.ignore()
 	growingString := ""
 
-	for {
-		if l.peek() == '\'' {
-			l.emitWithValue(tokenString, growingString)
+	// handle special case for triple-quote
+	terminator := "'"
+	if l.follow("''") {
+		l.pos += 2
+		l.ignore()
+		terminator = "'''"
+
+		// special case: discard leading newline
+		if l.peek() == '\n' {
 			l.pos++
 			l.ignore()
+		}
+	}
+
+	// find end of string
+	for {
+		if l.follow(terminator) {
+			l.emitWithValue(tokenString, growingString)
+			l.pos += len(terminator)
+			l.ignore()
 			return l.lexRvalue
 		}
 
@@ -309,58 +324,80 @@
 	l.ignore()
 	growingString := ""
 
-	for {
-		if l.peek() == '"' {
-			l.emitWithValue(tokenString, growingString)
+	// handle special case for triple-quote
+	terminator := "\""
+	if l.follow("\"\"") {
+		l.pos += 2
+		l.ignore()
+		terminator = "\"\"\""
+
+		// special case: discard leading newline
+		if l.peek() == '\n' {
 			l.pos++
 			l.ignore()
+		}
+	}
+
+	for {
+		if l.follow(terminator) {
+			l.emitWithValue(tokenString, growingString)
+			l.pos += len(terminator)
+			l.ignore()
 			return l.lexRvalue
 		}
 
-		if l.follow("\\\"") {
+		if l.follow("\\") {
 			l.pos++
-			growingString += "\""
-		} else if l.follow("\\n") {
-			l.pos++
-			growingString += "\n"
-		} else if l.follow("\\b") {
-			l.pos++
-			growingString += "\b"
-		} else if l.follow("\\f") {
-			l.pos++
-			growingString += "\f"
-		} else if l.follow("\\/") {
-			l.pos++
-			growingString += "/"
-		} else if l.follow("\\t") {
-			l.pos++
-			growingString += "\t"
-		} else if l.follow("\\r") {
-			l.pos++
-			growingString += "\r"
-		} else if l.follow("\\\\") {
-			l.pos++
-			growingString += "\\"
-		} else if l.follow("\\u") {
-			l.pos += 2
-			code := ""
-			for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
-				c := l.peek()
+			switch l.peek() {
+			case '\r':
+				fallthrough
+			case '\n':
+				fallthrough
+			case '\t':
+				fallthrough
+			case ' ':
+				// skip all whitespace chars following backslash
 				l.pos++
-				if !isHexDigit(c) {
-					return l.errorf("unfinished unicode escape")
+				for strings.ContainsRune("\r\n\t ", l.peek()) {
+					l.pos++
 				}
-				code = code + string(c)
+				l.pos--
+			case '"':
+				growingString += "\""
+			case 'n':
+				growingString += "\n"
+			case 'b':
+				growingString += "\b"
+			case 'f':
+				growingString += "\f"
+			case '/':
+				growingString += "/"
+			case 't':
+				growingString += "\t"
+			case 'r':
+				growingString += "\r"
+			case '\\':
+				growingString += "\\"
+			case 'u':
+				l.pos++
+				code := ""
+				for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
+					c := l.peek()
+					l.pos++
+					if !isHexDigit(c) {
+						return l.errorf("unfinished unicode escape")
+					}
+					code = code + string(c)
+				}
+				l.pos--
+				intcode, err := strconv.ParseInt(code, 16, 32)
+				if err != nil {
+					return l.errorf("invalid unicode escape: \\u" + code)
+				}
+				growingString += string(rune(intcode))
+			default:
+				return l.errorf("invalid escape sequence: \\" + string(l.peek()))
 			}
-			l.pos--
-			intcode, err := strconv.ParseInt(code, 16, 32)
-			if err != nil {
-				return l.errorf("invalid unicode escape: \\u" + code)
-			}
-			growingString += string(rune(intcode))
-		} else if l.follow("\\") {
-			l.pos++
-			return l.errorf("invalid escape sequence: \\" + string(l.peek()))
 		} else {
 			growingString += string(l.peek())
 		}
diff --git a/lexer_test.go b/lexer_test.go
index 2555a35..e9d0f14 100644
--- a/lexer_test.go
+++ b/lexer_test.go
@@ -487,6 +487,45 @@
 	})
 }
 
+func TestMultilineLiteralString(t *testing.T) {
+	testFlow(t, `foo = '''hello 'literal' world'''`, []token{
+		token{Position{1, 1}, tokenKey, "foo"},
+		token{Position{1, 5}, tokenEqual, "="},
+		token{Position{1, 10}, tokenString, `hello 'literal' world`},
+		token{Position{1, 34}, tokenEOF, ""},
+	})
+
+	testFlow(t, "foo = '''\nhello\n'literal'\nworld'''", []token{
+		token{Position{1, 1}, tokenKey, "foo"},
+		token{Position{1, 5}, tokenEqual, "="},
+		token{Position{2, 1}, tokenString, "hello\n'literal'\nworld"},
+		token{Position{4, 9}, tokenEOF, ""},
+	})
+}
+
+func TestMultilineString(t *testing.T) {
+	testFlow(t, `foo = """hello "literal" world"""`, []token{
+		token{Position{1, 1}, tokenKey, "foo"},
+		token{Position{1, 5}, tokenEqual, "="},
+		token{Position{1, 10}, tokenString, `hello "literal" world`},
+		token{Position{1, 34}, tokenEOF, ""},
+	})
+
+	testFlow(t, "foo = \"\"\"\nhello\n\"literal\"\nworld\"\"\"", []token{
+		token{Position{1, 1}, tokenKey, "foo"},
+		token{Position{1, 5}, tokenEqual, "="},
+		token{Position{2, 1}, tokenString, "hello\n\"literal\"\nworld"},
+		token{Position{4, 9}, tokenEOF, ""},
+	})
+
+	testFlow(t, "foo = \"\"\"\\\n    \\\n    \\\n    hello\nmultiline\nworld\"\"\"", []token{
+		token{Position{1, 1}, tokenKey, "foo"},
+		token{Position{1, 5}, tokenEqual, "="},
+		token{Position{1, 10}, tokenString, "hello\nmultiline\nworld"},
+		token{Position{6, 9}, tokenEOF, ""},
+	})
+}
+
 func TestUnicodeString(t *testing.T) {
 	testFlow(t, `foo = "hello ♥ world"`, []token{
 		token{Position{1, 1}, tokenKey, "foo"},
diff --git a/parser_test.go b/parser_test.go
index afaabd3..8110495 100644
--- a/parser_test.go
+++ b/parser_test.go
@@ -91,18 +91,17 @@
 func TestDateOffset(t *testing.T) {
 	tree, err := Load("a = 1979-05-27T00:32:00-07:00")
 	assertTree(t, tree, err, map[string]interface{}{
-		"a": time.Date(1979, time.May, 27, 0, 32, 0, 0, time.FixedZone("", -7 * 60 * 60)),
+		"a": time.Date(1979, time.May, 27, 0, 32, 0, 0, time.FixedZone("", -7*60*60)),
 	})
 }
 
 func TestDateNano(t *testing.T) {
 	tree, err := Load("a = 1979-05-27T00:32:00.999999999-07:00")
 	assertTree(t, tree, err, map[string]interface{}{
-		"a": time.Date(1979, time.May, 27, 0, 32, 0, 999999999, time.FixedZone("", -7 * 60 * 60)),
+		"a": time.Date(1979, time.May, 27, 0, 32, 0, 999999999, time.FixedZone("", -7*60*60)),
 	})
 }
 
-
 func TestSimpleString(t *testing.T) {
 	tree, err := Load("a = \"hello world\"")
 	assertTree(t, tree, err, map[string]interface{}{
diff --git a/test.sh b/test.sh
index 07aa52e..410838b 100755
--- a/test.sh
+++ b/test.sh
@@ -5,15 +5,26 @@
 # set the path to the present working directory
 export GOPATH=`pwd`
 
-# Vendorize the BurntSushi test suite
-# NOTE: this gets a specific release to avoid versioning issues
-if [ ! -d 'src/github.com/BurntSushi/toml-test' ]; then
-  mkdir -p src/github.com/BurntSushi
-  git clone https://github.com/BurntSushi/toml-test.git src/github.com/BurntSushi/toml-test
-fi
-pushd src/github.com/BurntSushi/toml-test
-git reset --hard '0.2.0'  # use the released version, NOT tip
-popd
+function git_clone() {
+  path=$1
+  branch=$2
+  version=$3
+  if [ ! -d "src/$path" ]; then
+    mkdir -p src/$path
+    git clone https://$path.git src/$path
+  fi
+  pushd src/$path
+  git checkout "$branch"
+  git reset --hard "$version"
+  popd
+}
+
+# get code for BurntSushi TOML validation
+# pinning all to 'HEAD' for version 0.3.x work (TODO: pin to commit hash when tests stabilize)
+git_clone github.com/BurntSushi/toml master HEAD
+git_clone github.com/BurntSushi/toml-test master HEAD #was: 0.2.0 HEAD
+
+# build the BurntSushi test application
 go build -o toml-test github.com/BurntSushi/toml-test
 
 # vendorize the current lib for testing
@@ -23,6 +34,42 @@
 cp cmd/*.go src/github.com/pelletier/go-toml/cmd
 go build -o test_program_bin src/github.com/pelletier/go-toml/cmd/test_program.go
 
-# Run basic unit tests and then the BurntSushi test suite
+# Run basic unit tests
 go test -v github.com/pelletier/go-toml
-./toml-test ./test_program_bin | tee test_out
+
+# run the entire BurntSushi test suite
+if [[ $# -eq 0 ]] ; then
+  echo "Running all BurntSushi tests"
+  ./toml-test ./test_program_bin | tee test_out
+else
+  # run a specific test
+  test=$1
+  test_path='src/github.com/BurntSushi/toml-test/tests'
+  valid_test="$test_path/valid/$test"
+  invalid_test="$test_path/invalid/$test"
+
+  if [ -e "$valid_test.toml" ]; then
+    echo "Valid Test TOML for $test:"
+    echo "===="
+    cat "$valid_test.toml"
+
+    echo "Valid Test JSON for $test:"
+    echo "===="
+    cat "$valid_test.json"
+
+    echo "Go-TOML Output for $test:"
+    echo "===="
+    cat "$valid_test.toml" | ./test_program_bin
+  fi
+
+  if [ -e "$invalid_test.toml" ]; then
+    echo "Invalid Test TOML for $test:"
+    echo "===="
+    cat "$invalid_test.toml"
+    
+    echo "Go-TOML Output for $test:"
+    echo "===="
+    echo "go-toml Output:"
+    cat "$invalid_test.toml" | ./test_program_bin
+  fi
+fi