SQL in the database..little help please

Hi, I need to save some SQL queries into the MySql database for later use, I thought this was done pretty simply by doing a addslashes before insert so that someones name like like " O'reilly " does not screw up the insert and a stripslashes for reading from the DB. I did that but when I checked in the DB I couldnt find the O/'reilly as it saves it normally as "O'reilly". (Did a little more reading and found out the database does not input O/'reilly but understands that its " O'reilly " but if you dont use stripslashes..you're screwed) I anyway wanted to make sure and went to the online php manual...there I got totally confused as some say dont use add slashes at all for portability or we have to also escape the % and # if we are using a LIKE in the statement...and a whole lot of other stuff. I have first put off magic_quotes...now can anybody tell me how YOU are doing it so I can do it the same damn exact way...reading online is a problem coz I am getting conflicting ways of doing it....or am just braindead looking at code all day, either way..your answer is appreciated. Thanks, -Ryan