I had the same need and ended up writing a function to do it. This does not handle newlines. You might want to check the code sharing page to see if anyone has updated it. http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php?title=Code_Samples

	
	public static List> parseCSV(String contents,Boolean skipHeaders) {
		List> allFields = new List>();

		// replace instances where a double quote begins a field containing a comma
		// in this case you get a double quote followed by a doubled double quote
		// do this for beginning and end of a field
		contents = contents.replaceAll(',"""',',"DBLQT').replaceall('""",','DBLQT",');
		// now replace all remaining double quotes - we do this so that we can reconstruct
		// fields with commas inside assuming they begin and end with a double quote
		contents = contents.replaceAll('""','DBLQT');
		// we are not attempting to handle fields with a newline inside of them
		// so, split on newline to get the spreadsheet rows
		List lines = new List();
		try {
			lines = contents.split('\n');
		} catch (System.ListException e) {
			System.debug('Limits exceeded?' + e.getMessage());
		}
		Integer num = 0;
		for(String line : lines) {
			// check for blank CSV lines (only commas)
			if (line.replaceAll(',','').trim().length() == 0) break;
			
			List fields = line.split(',');	
			List cleanFields = new List();
			String compositeField;
			Boolean makeCompositeField = false;
			for(String field : fields) {
				if (field.startsWith('"')) {
					makeCompositeField = true;
					compositeField = field;
				} else if (field.endsWith('"')) {
					compositeField += ',' + field;
					cleanFields.add(compositeField.replaceAll('DBLQT','"'));
					makeCompositeField = false;
				} else if (makeCompositeField) {
					compositeField +=  ',' + field;
				} else {
					cleanFields.add(field.replaceAll('DBLQT','"'));
				}
			}
			
			allFields.add(cleanFields);
		}
		if (skipHeaders) allFields.remove(0);
		return allFields;		
	}