Jane Hawking

“Intellectually, Stephen was a towering giant. Bodily, he was as helpless as a newborn. The functions I fulfilled were all maternal rather than marital.”

“I never sacrificed myself. I did what I did out of love.”

“The truth was, there were four partners in our marriage. Stephen and me, motor neurone disease, and physics. If you took out motor neurone disease, you are still left with physics.”

“We were under scrutiny when Stephen became rich and famous. The media were in the house, and camera leads were absolutely everywhere - it was just nightmarish.”

“I couldn't let him die; I was the agent of life for Stephen.”

“I suppose I was still optimistic and unrealistic, and I just hoped we could keep going as we were. But no. That was not good enough for Stephen, so off he went. Those were hard times. They really were. But then, I suppose, divorce is always hard.”

“Gardening is one of my enduring, favourite, and most rewarding pastimes.”

“Don't ever believe what you see in films.”

“My philosophy is that while there's life, there's hope. It's as simple as that.”

“I don't think of my life as having two marriages; I think of it as a continuum.”

“The gas man came one day, and he said, 'What does your husband do?' so I told him, and he said, 'What's the use of that?' He had a point, but on the other hand, I firmly believed in Stephen and his brilliance. I encouraged him to popularise his science just because the gas man had been so insulting.”

“We were surrounded by influences and interests that came between Stephen and me. The nurse who became his wife was seeking to undermine me, and there were wider influences, too, following the runaway success of 'A Brief History of Time.'”