Advice on how to return a list of values

Hi! I'm writing a function that returns an array of (at maximum) 64 
pointers to char. I have thought of three possibility:

- The caller p***** a pointer to a previously allocated array of 64 
pointers. Similarly to sprintf(), the caller is entirely responsible for 
handling the memory. The drawback is that my function will have to rely 
on the correctness of such pointer to work properly.

- My function allocates the array and returns it. This is similar to 
strdup(). Here I will have to rely on the caller function to properly 
free the array, which is something I'm not very comfortable with.

- I'll have a  "static char *ret[64]" in my function and will return 
ret. I've not been able to think of a library function that behaves this 
way, so I guess it's not reccomended. The good is that I'm free from 
allocation/freeing problem.   The bad is that the return values will be 
overwritten at each call; if the user wants to keep the return values 
for subsequent use he has to copy and store them somewhere.  Another 
drawback is that it consumes memory even if the function will never be 
called.

In my specific case, I was leaning toward the third option but I'd like 
to hear your opinion on pitfalls, things that I've missed or alternative 
approaches that could work better.

Thanks,
           Remo.D.