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.