It seems that "to be like" is an informal phrase for "to say". E.g.
She was so angry, she was like "I'm breaking up with you", and I was like "I'm sorry", and she was like "Go away".
Is this a recent thing? When did "to be like" start to be used to mean "to say"? It doesn't seem to be in any dictionaries (yet) (I might be wrong, though).
It would be interesting to know why the words "to be like" came to mean "to say", although I realize that the answer to the majority of "why" questions is "just because".