Slashes

hi all, i need help on my slashes.. i saw php.net say: "Do not use addslashes() on strings that have already been escaped with magic_quotes_gpc as you'll then do double escaping." with that, i also did not do a stripslashes when i retrieve my data, since my magic_quotes_gpc is on.. but why is it that I still get a backslash before an occurrence of a single-quote? for example, <td width="630" height="6"><? echo $fieldName; ?></td> where $fieldName is retrieved from the database through: $query = "select fieldName from table where condition "; $result = mysql_query($query); $fieldName = mysql_result($result,0); // which is James' Favourite Pet also, a more serious problem is when i echo the $fieldName into a textbox. for example: <input type="text" name="field1" size="20" value="<? echo $fieldName; ?>"> if $fieldName contains: it's name is "Bob", anything after the double quote (i.e. Bob") gets cut-off! it's disaster!! dear php developers, can you please enlighten me on what happened? and how can I rectify the problem? thanx so much! regards, hwee