str='(\\HasNoChildren \\Junk) "/" "[Gmail]/&V4NXPpCuTvY-"' x=str.split(' "') [i.replace('"','') for i in x] ['(\\HasNoChildren \\Junk)', '/', '[Gmail]/&V4NXPpCuTvY-'] x.strip(" ") will create four parts. is there more simple to do that ?