Anzia Yezierska

Anzia Yezierska (1881 - 1970) was born in Pinsk, Poland, and emigrated to New York City when she was a teenager. She wrote about the struggles of Jewish and later Puerto Rican immigrants in New York's Lower East Side. Her most studied work Bread Givers (ISBN 0892550147) follows the story of young woman while struggling to live from day to day struggles to find her place in Jewish and American culture.

3 Quotes

Give a beggar a dime and he'll bless you. Give him a dollar and he'll curse you for withholding the rest of your fortune. Poverty is a bag with a hole at the bottom.
— Anzia Yezierska

A man is free to go up as high as he can reach up to; but I, with all my style and pep, can't get a man my equal because a girl is always judged by her mother.
— Anzia Yezierska

Without comprehension, the immigrant would forever remain shut -- a stranger in America. Until America can release the heart as well as train the hand of the immigrant, he would forever remain driven back upon himself, corroded by the very richness of the unused gifts within his soul.
— Anzia Yezierska