The revelation we've come to is that we can trust our memories of a past with lower, not higher, entropy only if the big bang - the process, event, or happening that brought the universe into existence - started off the universe in an extraordinarily special, highly ordered state of low entropy.

One of the wonders of science is that it is completely universal. It crosses national boundaries with total ease.

If the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake.

But, as Einstein once said, “For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.”5

The main challenge that television presents is that I have a tendency to say things with a great deal of precision and accuracy. Often a description of that sort, which will work in a book because people can read it slowly - they can turn the pages back and so on - doesn't really work on TV because it interrupts the flow of the moving image.

You should never be surprised by or feel the need to explain why any physical system is in a high entropy state.

Physicists have come to realize that mathematics, when used with sufficient care, is a proven pathway to truth.