Part I 1942–1975

1 ‘The quest for a Theory of Everything’
2 ‘Our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in’
3 ‘Equal to anything!’
4 ‘The realization that I had an incurable disease, that was likely to kill me
in a few years, was a bit of a shock’
5 ‘The big question was, was there a beginning or not?’
6 ‘There is a singularity in our past’

Part II 1970–1990

7 ‘These people must think we are used to an astronomical standard of living’
8 ‘Scientists usually assume there is a unique link between the past and the future,
cause and effect. If information is lost, this link is lost’
9 ‘The odds against a universe that has produced life like ours are immense’
10 ‘In all my travels, I have not managed to fall off the edge of the world’
11 ‘It’s turtles all the way down’
12 ‘The field of baby universes is in its infancy’

Part III 1990–2000

13 ‘Is the end in sight for theoretical physics?’
14 ‘Between film roles I enjoy solving physics problems’
15 ‘I think we have a good chance of avoiding both Armageddon and a new Dark Age’
16 ‘It seems clear to me’

Part IV 2000–2011

17 ‘An expanding horizon of possibilities’
18 ‘Grandad has wheels’
19 ‘I’ve always gone in a somewhat different direction’
20 ‘My name is Stephen Hawking: physicist, cosmologist and something of a dreamer’

Glossary . . . References . . . Bibliography . . . Index