A quotative is grammatical device to mark reported speech in some languages. It can be equated with "spoken quotation marks". In the English sentence
(1) John said "Wow,"
there is no word indicating that we are dealing with reported speech. This is only indicated typographically. In Sinhala on the other hand, the equivalent sentence
(2) John Wow kiyalaa kivvaa
has an overt indication of reported speech after the reported string Wow, the quotative kiyalaa.
In Japanese, the quotative と [to] (colloquially って [tte]) is used to indicate reported speech in this sentence
(3) 石田さん は 「トマトが好きじゃない」 と 言いました。
Ishida-san ha [wa] "tomato ga suki janai" to iimashita.
Mr. Ishida top. "tomato-nom like-neg" quot. say-past-polite
"Mr. Ishida said that he didn't like tomatoes"
See Japanese Grammar for more examples of when と (to) is used.
In English, the phrase be like can be used as a quotative.
(4) John was like, wow.