validate/sanitize data

I need to add textarea input into a mysql database. The input can be anything you would find in normal paragraph text - [:alnum:][:punct:][:space:]. In this case it is likely that the input could also include special accent characters (grave, acute, tilde, etc. - ex. é). Is addslashes enough to reduce security/sql error issues (provided !get_magic_quotes_gpc())? Or should I try to strip or test for "-- = < >". This input, due to its size, is obviously not going to be used in a WHERE clause. ————————————————————————————————— Todd Trent VP Hogfish Design 2550 26th Street West Bradenton, FL 34205 Tel: 941-749-0144 url: www.hogfishdesign.com —————————————————————————————————