Tagging this as humor because of Hawking's responses.
Thank you for posting this. It led me to read this article from Hawking's home page about how he talks. Given the process described by Hawking in that article, I would have to think that some of the longer answers were prepared ahead of time. I loved watching Hawking's smiles and rolling of his eyes.
I read some of A Brief History of Time a long time ago, but got lost quickly. I was reading books explaining quantum physics back then, like In Search of Schrodinger's Cat. That book and some others that made quantum physics somewhat understandable were perfect for me - a non-physicist (unlike 2/5ths of the hubski management team).
i you like that kind of content, but feel like some of it is too difficult (i sure as hell do), i highly suggest bill bryson's A Complete History of Nearly Everything. It lightly covers a myriad of topics, including cosmology. It's a great book, highly readable and entertaining!
Aha I was given a copy of the variations of A Brief History and a couple of Sagan's books. I managed to keep my head through most of A Brief History of The Universe (I think it is), but stopped reading because life was calling my name at the time. Lately, I've looking into the Sagan books I have (Pale Blue Dot, Contact, Demon Haunted World and I think one other one... I don't remember what it is though.)
EDIT: not a physicist myself, just somebody with some time to invest.
I like the fact that the humor came from Hawking and he was the funny one, it's a side of him you don't often see.