To work with strings in CF as easily as I work with html I wrote a very simple custom tag, <cf_BlockToString>.
The tag works like this:
<cf_BlockToString var="myVar">The quick and dirty version (no error checking) of BlockToString.cfm is:
This is a bunch of text where I'm able to "quote" things and #pound# out the special characters without escaping.
<cfset newVar="I can still do normal CF stuff too."> <cfoutput>#newVar#</cfoutput> </cf_BlockToString>
<cfoutput>#myVar#</cfoutput>
<cfif thisTag.ExecutionMode is 'end'>Have fun.
<cfset Caller."#Attributes.var#" = thisTag.GeneratedContent>
<cfset thisTag.GeneratedContent = "">
</cfif>