Wordpress functions - get values without echo
===

How can I programmatically use the data of the bult-in Wordpress functions. 

E.g. I'd like to use the data of

    the_author_meta('login_name'); 

in a php function. Problem: The function **echoes** the value by default. In order to use the actual value in a function I can think of using an output buffer like ...

    ob_start();
    the_author_meta('login_name'); 	
    $contents = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();

but I was hoping for a better (less bloated) solution. 

Any idea how to get the echo values as simple return values instead?