$re = '@(^[^<]+)|(<img[^>]+>)|((?<=>).+?(?=<i))|((?<=>).+?$)@isu';
$str = 'Хочу пить!<img src="/images/upload/3k0tx90veagw88gsgwwoocgk8sg4k8w.png"/>Хочу,< и пить!<img src="/images/upload/gidykcwjge0wwcs8ws40kw4040sw44w.png"/>Хочу: есть?';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php