Flâneuse Quotes

“Free and alone in the maze of the city, the flâneur craves a revelation that might change his life and destiny.”
― Federico Castigliano, Flâneur: The Art of Wandering the Streets of Paris

“Mais parfois il y a quelque chose de fébrile, de morbide, dans l’allure du flâneur. Il erre dans la ville, semble être à la recherche d’une chimère. Sa destination est confuse ou impossible à atteindre. Son pas se fait nerveux, exaspéré : on dirait un homme en fuite. Le flâneur fuit la banalité de la vie ordinaire. Il fuit les souvenirs et les spectres de son intériorité.”
― Federico Castigliano, Flâneur: L'art de vagabonder dans Paris

“Paris est la drogue du solitaire, un labyrinthe inépuisable où l’angoisse du possible s’apaise.”
― Federico Castigliano, Flâneur: L'art de vagabonder dans Paris

“The streets of Paris had a way of making me stop in my tracks, my heart suspended. They seemed saturated with presence, even if there was no one there but me. These were places where something could happen, or had happened, or both; a feeling I could never have had at home in New York, where life is inflected with the future tense.”
― Lauren Elkin, Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London

“Once I began to look for the flâneuse, I spotted her everywhere. I caught her standing on street corners in New York and coming through doorways in Kyoto, sipping coffee at café tables in Paris, at the foot of a bridge in Venice, or riding the ferry in Hong Kong. She is going somewhere or coming from somewhere; she is saturated with in-betweenness. She may be a writer, or she may be an artist, or she may be a secretary or an au pair. She may be unemployed. She may be unemployable. She may be a wife or a mother, or she may be totally free. She may take the bus or the train when she's tired. But mostly, she goes on foot. She gets to know the city by wandering its streets, investigating its dark corners, peering behind facades, penetrating into secret courtyards. I found her using cities as performance spaces or as hiding places; as places to seek fame and fortune or anonymity; as places to liberate herself from oppression or to help those who are oppressed; as places to declare her independence; as places to change the world or be changed by it.”
― Lauren Elkin, Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London

“Il flâneur è colui che consacra la propria vita all’attimo, alle cose effimere.”
― Federico Castigliano, Flâneur: The Art of Wandering the Streets of Paris