> "One can regard imaginary and real time as beginning at the South Pole, which is a smooth point of space-time where the normal laws of physics hold. There is nothing south of the South Pole, so there was nothing around before the Big Bang," Hawking said.
My layman's reading of that imagines if you move south, get to the south pole, and then keep going the same direction you had been going, you are still moving but no longer going "south." In this metaphor, you could go back in time, be "at" the Big Bang, keep going the direction you had been going in time, but the direction you're going would no longer be "before."
I have no idea how practical this metaphor is and how far it extends, but it's an appealing one to me. Maybe someone else could clarify.
[1] https://www.cnet.com/science/stephen-hawking-tells-degrasse-...