How do we push back reviewer's policing of the genre of academic writing? I started with one manuscript with a quote from a novel, and the quote beautifully captured the essence of the main argument my coauthors and I advanced in this manuscript. One reviewer asks us to remove ..

One reviewer asks us to remove this quote, commenting that it's not appropriate to cite quotes from a fiction as a hook for a research paper. Isn't literature a theorization of life? How should I push back on this review comment? Any suggestions?

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