keeping html formatting in text

Hi
I've got some text coming out of a database, but html markup isn't being
turned into formatting.

For example, the text in the database is:

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things
that never were and say, "Why not?"

I'm using this code to output:

$quote = HTMLSpecialChars($myrow[quote]);
$quote = nl2br($quote);
$quote = trim($quote);

echo ("<b>\"$quote\"</b><br><i>$myrow[author]</i><br>");

and this is the output:

"Some men see things as they are and say, &quot;Why?&quot; I dream of
things that never were and say, &quot;Why not?&quot;
"
George Bernard Shaw


[NB: note extra carriage return before the second quote marks. I'd sure like
to kow where that's coming from too...]

anyone any ideas?

TIA

Ian W