Two things sometimes irk me: How much code there is to write for simple DB interaction + coupling of two different languages (SQL + [programming lang]).

In Rails I'd write:

  Folk.create(:name => some_name, :addr => some_addr, :city => some_city)

One line, easily readable and only one language (Ruby).

This is not meant to be a flame post - I'm just asking: Is it the preferred way in PHP to prepare SQL statements yourself?