Can a piece of dialogue be treated as a noun and be made plural?

Question

Although they did prefer to keep conversations short, and after some “How are you”’s and “Isn’t the weather lovely today?”’s they tended to return to whatever it was they had been doing.

Is this allowed, with or without the speech marks? If not is there any way to convey a similar meaning, of certain phrases being used many times?

Benjamin Harman · Answer

Absolutely.
Example 1:
"It's past your bedtime," said Jan. "Go to bed."
"But—" started Ella with a whine in her voice.
"No buts," Jan quickly interrupted. "Go to bed. Now!"
Example 2:
"John?" asked Helen.
"Yea."
"Sandra?"
"Yea."
"Jim?"
"Nay."
"Oscar?"
"Yea."
"Well, that's three yeas and one nay," responded Helen. "The motion carries."
Example 3
"That's a fine how-do-you-do!" exclaimed Henry.
"That's the third time I've heard you say that today," said Terry. "I'm starting to get worried. Those fine how-do-you-dos are really starting to add up."

Can a piece of dialogue be treated as a noun and be made plural?

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