Problems Generating Javascript String Variables With Php..

i'm trying to create some javascript string variables using php. i'm running into a problem because some of the variables span multiple lines and this is causing a problem. here is a sample of what i'm trying to do:

var thetext1=new Array()
thetext1[0]="info for #1 goes here"
thetext1[1]="info for #2 goes here"
thetext1[2]="info for #3 goes here"

etc.... the array values are output from a mysql db using php and used for a script i have on my page.

the problem is some of my strings span multiple lines and end up making it look like:

thetext1[36]= "this is an example
of how some stuff spans
multiple lines"

Using the javascript console in firefox i see the problem is: "Error: unterminated string literal." I believe it is because the string I am trying to input is spanning multiple lines. any idea on how to fix this?

i'm using php/mysql to create these javascript variables so i have access to their functions. i tried doing this:
str_replace( "
", '', $row['text']);
to replace the newlines with nothing but they're still there.

any ideas on how to get around this?