diff --git a/plugin/UltiSnips/Util.py b/plugin/UltiSnips/Util.py
index 9eb3d3c..741725c 100644
--- a/plugin/UltiSnips/Util.py
+++ b/plugin/UltiSnips/Util.py
@@ -4,6 +4,21 @@
 import vim
 import os
 
+def vim_string(inp):
+    """ Creates a vim-friendly string from a group of
+    dicts, lists and strings.
+    """
+    def conv(obj):
+        if isinstance(obj, list):
+            return u'[' + u",".join([conv(o) for o in obj]) + u']'
+        elif isinstance(obj, dict):
+            return u'{' + u','.join([
+                u"%s:%s" % (conv(key), conv(value))
+                for key, value in obj.iteritems()]) + u'}'
+        else:
+            return u'"%s"' % str(obj).replace(u'"', u'\\"')
+    return conv(inp)
+
 class IndentUtil(object):
     """ Utility class for dealing properly with indentation. """
 
diff --git a/plugin/UltiSnips/__init__.py b/plugin/UltiSnips/__init__.py
index 0b29583..e535570 100644
--- a/plugin/UltiSnips/__init__.py
+++ b/plugin/UltiSnips/__init__.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import vim
 from UltiSnips.Geometry import Position
 from UltiSnips.TextObjects import *
 from UltiSnips.Buffer import VimBuffer
-from UltiSnips.Util import IndentUtil
+from UltiSnips.Util import IndentUtil, vim_string
 from UltiSnips.Langmap import LangMapTranslator
 
 # The following lines silence DeprecationWarnings. They are raised
@@ -51,17 +51,13 @@ Following is the full stack trace:
             _to_scratch_buffer(s)
     return wrapper
 
-def _vim_quote(s):
-    """Quote string s as Vim literal string."""
-    return "'" + s.replace("'", "''") + "'"
-
 def feedkeys(s, mode='n'):
     """Wrapper around vim's feedkeys function. Mainly for convenience."""
     vim.command(r'call feedkeys("%s", "%s")' % (s, mode))
 
 def echom(mes, *args):
     mes = mes % args
-    vim.command('echom "%s"' % mes.replace('"', '\\"'))
+    vim.command('echom %s' % vim_string(mes))
 
 class _SnippetDictionary(object):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -151,7 +147,7 @@ class _SnippetsFileParser(object):
         self._idx = 0
 
     def _error(self, msg):
-        fn = vim.eval("""fnamemodify(%s, ":~:.")""" % _vim_quote(self._fn))
+        fn = vim.eval("""fnamemodify(%s, ":~:.")""" % vim_string(self._fn))
         self._sm._error("%s in %s(%d)" % (msg, fn, self._idx + 1))
 
     def _line(self):
@@ -831,7 +827,7 @@ class SnippetManager(object):
     # Private/Protect Functions Below #
     ###################################
     def _error(self, msg):
-        msg = _vim_quote("UltiSnips: " + msg)
+        msg = vim_string("UltiSnips: " + msg)
         if self._test_error:
             msg = msg.replace('"', r'\"')
             msg = msg.replace('|', r'\|')