echo 'I like this * very * much (really)'

Actually, you could use the single quotes over a smaller range. The following will produce the same output:

echo I like this '*' very '*' much '(really)'

And you can even be tighter or weirder with your quoting:

echo I like this '*' very '* mu'ch '('rea'lly)'

One single quote starts the "quoting" (in which the asterisk and the parentheses don't have their usual special meaning to the shell), and the next one stops it.