One of my favorite things about the English language is the usage of 'to go' or 'to be like' to mean 'to say'. As in "so he went 'what' at me" or "he was like, 'I don't even work here.'"
A valuable reminder that words can not only transport us... they can transform us
oh oh oh! but importantly, "to be like" doesn't exactly mean said; it has a much looser relationship to quotation. "I said, 'What the fuck?'." means that i actually said those three words, whereas "I was like, 'What the fuck?'." could mean that i just had some sort of "wtf" expression on my face. quotative like is a really lovely way of flagging that you're conveying the fundamental sentiment of a thought or exchange without necessarily slogging thru exact reporting of all the pertinent words
