My ideal role would be a baddie in a James Bond film. I think the wheelchair and the computer voice would fit the part.
— Stephen Hawking
It's time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.
I had not expected 'A Brief History of Time' to be a best seller. It was my first popular book and aroused a great deal of interest. Initially, many people found it difficult to understand. I therefore decided to try to write a new version that would be easier to follow.
We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.
The fastest manned vehicle in history was Apollo 10. It reached 25,000 mph.
If I had a time machine, I'd visit Marilyn Monroe in her prime or drop in on Galileo as he turned his telescope to the heavens.
There are plenty of dead scientists I admire, but I can't think of any living ones. This is probably because it is only in retrospect that one can see who made the important contributions.
I'm never any good in the morning. It is only after four in the afternoon that I get going.
There is nothing bigger or older than the universe.
I believe there are no questions that science can't answer about a physical universe.
My discovery that black holes emit radiation raised serious problems of consistency with the rest of physics. I have now resolved these problems, but the answer turned out to be not what I expected.
If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way.
I have wanted to fly into space for many years, but never imagined it would really be feasible.
According to 'M' theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, 'M' theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing.
Some forms of motor neuron disease are genetically linked, but I have no indication that my kind is. No other member of my family has had it. But I would be in favour of abortion if there was a high risk.
Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest.
The Planck satellite may detect the imprint of the gravitational waves predicted by inflation. This would be quantum gravity written across the sky.
I'm an atheist.
God may exist, but science can explain the universe without the need for a creator.
Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe.
I don't have much positive to say about motor neurone disease. But it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I could still do.
If we want to travel into the future, we just need to go fast. Really fast. And I think the only way we're ever likely to do that is by going into space.
I don't care much for equations myself. This is partly because it is difficult for me to write them down, but mainly because I don't have an intuitive feeling for equations.
My father was a research scientist in tropical medicine, so I always assumed I would be a scientist, too. I felt that medicine was too vague and inexact, so I chose physics.
I think it quite likely that we are the only civilization within several hundred light years; otherwise we would have heard radio waves.
In my school, the brightest boys did math and physics, the less bright did physics and chemistry, and the least bright did biology. I wanted to do math and physics, but my father made me do chemistry because he thought there would be no jobs for mathematicians.
I have found far greater enthusiasm for science in America than here in Britain. There is more enthusiasm for everything in America.
We think that life develops spontaneously on Earth, so it must be possible for life to develop on suitable planets elsewhere in the universe. But we don't know the probability that a planet develops life.
As a child, I wanted to know how things worked and to control them. With a friend, I built a number of complicated models that I could control.
While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I'm no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women.
I have a full and satisfying life. My work and my family are very important to me.
Only black holes of very low mass would emit a significant amount of radiation.
I hope I have helped to raise the profile of science and to show that physics is not a mystery but can be understood by ordinary people.
I have visited Japan several times and have always been shown wonderful hospitality.
We lived in a tall, narrow Victorian house, which my parents had bought very cheaply during the war, when everyone thought London was going to be bombed flat. In fact, a V-2 rocket landed a few houses away from ours. I was away with my mother and sister at the time, but my father was in the house.
My three children have brought me great joy.
Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.
I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
Some scientists think it may be possible to capture a wormhole and enlarge it many trillions of times to make it big enough for a human or even a spaceship to enter.
I first had the idea of writing a popular book about the universe in 1982. My intention was partly to earn money to pay my daughter's school fees.
Many badly needed goals, like fusion and cancer cure, would be achieved much sooner if we invested more.
Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging in time.
Some people would claim that things like love, joy and beauty belong to a different category from science and can't be described in scientific terms, but I think they can now be explained by the theory of evolution.
I want my books sold on airport bookstalls.
I was never top of the class at school, but my classmates must have seen potential in me, because my nickname was 'Einstein.'
A zero-gravity flight is a first step toward space travel.
I think we have a good chance of surviving long enough to colonize the solar system.
Cambridge is one of the best universities in the world, especially in my field.
Wagner manages to convey emotion with music better than anyone, before or since.
Exploration by real people inspires us.
