For this type of stuff, it's best to use os's path.join. Example:
I you want to use single quotes you can do the following:
import os textDoc = os.path.join('C:', 'users', 'user1', 'desktop', 'stuff', 'test.txt')
I you want to use single quotes you can do the following:
path = r'C:\users\user1\desktop\\'