One can't predict the weather more than a few days in advance.
— Stephen Hawking
Cosmology is a rapidly advancing field.
I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.
It now appears that the way the universe began can indeed be determined, using imaginary time.
Theoretical physics is one of the few fields in which being disabled is no handicap - it is all in the mind.
Stem cell research is the key to developing cures for degenerative conditions like Parkinson's and motor neuron disease from which I and many others suffer. The fact that the cells may come from embryos is not an objection, because the embryos are going to die anyway.
I grew up thinking that a research scientist was a natural thing to be.
To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.
Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the fundamental equations of physics.
The human race may be the only intelligent beings in the galaxy.
'The Simpsons' appearances were great fun. But I don't take them too seriously. I think 'The Simpsons' have treated my disability responsibly.
My first popular book, 'A Brief History of Time,' aroused a great deal of interest, but many found it difficult to understand.
Evolution has ensured that our brains just aren't equipped to visualise 11 dimensions directly. However, from a purely mathematical point of view it's just as easy to think in 11 dimensions, as it is to think in three or four.
All my adult life people have been helping me.
Women. They are a complete mystery.
In Britain, like most of the developed world, stem-cell research is regarded as a great opportunity. America will be left behind if it doesn't change policy.
People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.
There are no black holes in the sense of regimes from which light can't escape to infinity.
We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.
Our minds work in real time, which begins at the Big Bang and will end, if there is a Big Crunch - which seems unlikely, now, from the latest data showing accelerating expansion. Consciousness would come to an end at a singularity.
For years, my early work with Roger Penrose seemed to be a disaster for science. It showed that the universe must have begun with a singularity, if Einstein's general theory of relativity is correct. That appeared to indicate that science could not predict how the universe would begin.
I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their own life, and those that help them should be free from prosecution.
Earth might one day soon resemble the planet Venus.
I think the human race doesn't have a future if it doesn't go into space.
My wife and I love each other very much.
My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn't prevent you doing well, and don't regret the things it interferes with. Don't be disabled in spirit as well as physically.
I have so much that I want to do. I hate wasting time.
In the past, there was active discrimination against women in science. That has now gone, and although there are residual effects, these are not enough to account for the small numbers of women, particularly in mathematics and physics.
We think we have solved the mystery of creation. Maybe we should patent the universe and charge everyone royalties for their existence.
I used to think information was destroyed in black hole. This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science.
Nothing cannot exist forever.
Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.
Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.
I enjoy all forms of music - pop, classical and opera.
There's no way to remove the observer - us - from our perceptions of the world.
The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world.
Imaginary time is a new dimension, at right angles to ordinary, real time.
In less than a hundred years, we have found a new way to think of ourselves. From sitting at the center of the universe, we now find ourselves orbiting an average-sized sun, which is just one of millions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy.
I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.
I can't say that my disability has helped my work, but it has allowed me to concentrate on research without having to lecture or sit on boring committees.
Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.
The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986. I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it.
I don't have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I'm happier now than before I developed the condition.
I have wondered about time all my life.
When we understand string theory, we will know how the universe began. It won't have much effect on how we live, but it is important to understand where we come from and what we can expect to find as we explore.
People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.
God not only plays dice, but also sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.
No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius.
I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing.
The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.
