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"I'm 28 years old. I've spent half my life as a professional actor. It's been slow and steady and that's the way I like it," says Hawke.
"I look at people like John Travolta who had a taste of superstardom, lost it for a while and then came back. There's a sense of desperation in the amount of work he does, but that's because he's so happy to be back in the game that he's determined not to miss a beat."
Hawke's romantic drama Snow Falling on Cedars opens Friday. He plays a journalist who is covering the murder trial of the husband of his former lover.
Snow Falling on Cedars is Australian director Scott Hicks' first film since his international triumph with Shine.
"Some big names in Hollywood wanted the role and I met with a few of them. Ethan made a big play for the part," recalls Hicks.
"He flew out from New York to see me. I could see he was hungry for the role and that was the deciding factor for me. Ethan admitted it was rare for him to pursue a role."
Hawke is the first to admit he lacks aggression when it comes to fighting for roles, or even in choosing them.
"When I look at Edward Norton, I see the punk kid who took the role (in Primal Fear) I turned down and became a star."
Hawke knows it safe to joke about Norton's lucky break because the actors are friends.
"When I was promoting Dead Poets Society, I went to Yale where he was a student. I met with his class. He loves to point out that I was more interested in picking up girls than in acting.
"I seemed like the typical Hollywood brat to all those dedicated acting students."
Norton is not the only contemporary whose career Hawke feels he helped foster.
"I love doing theatre. I turned down a plum role in the Broadway production of (Tom Stoppard's) Arcadia that went to Billy Crudup. He was a sensation. That's another one I should never have let through the door."
Hawke made his film debut in Joe Dante's 1985 science fiction family adventure film Explorers. It took four years before Hawke would get the role in Dead Poets Society that finally put him in the race.
"You get in a hit movie and suddenly producers and casting agents are calling you. For about five years, Dead Poets Society was my calling card."
Hawke was cast in such films as Dad, White Fang, Waterland, A Midnight Clear and Alive.
His next big career break was the Gen-X film Reality Bites, which turned him into a poster boy for disenfranchised youth.
In all this time, Hawke managed to shield his private life. Everyone from fans to critics and paparazzi were more interested in his characters than in Hawke himself.
That all changed one night in 1994 when paparazzi snapped a photo of Hawke dancing the night away with Julia Roberts, who had just announced she was divorcing Lyle Lovett.
"It was a dance. That's all it was," says Hawke. "Julia and I were out with our agents talking about the possibility of doing a movie together. It was meant to be an informal evening, so we all went to a club together."
The film project never materialized, but Hawke took his place as one of Roberts' conquests.
Two years later, on the set of the sci-fi drama Gattaca, Hawke fell in love with his leading lady Uma Thurman. The couple was married in May of 1998 and had their daughter Maya Ray two months later.
"Marriage and fatherhood were not major priorities in my life but I'm grateful they found me," says Hawke.
"My parents were teenagers when I was born and they didn't have enough love for each other to keep them together.
"It's only since I've become a father that I understand the incredible pressure parenthood put on them at such a young age.
"Uma and I are so lucky because we are older, have solid careers, are in love and really wanted a child."
This is Hawke's first marriage. Thurman was married briefly to Gary Oldman.
Hawke admits he needs to rediscover the enthusiasm that led him to become an actor in the first place.
"I need to maintain interest. It seems I've been doing this for so long. I have to seek out projects that thrill me. It's not enough that they pay the bills."
Last year, Hawke produced and starred in a contemporary version of Hamlet.
"It's literally an experiment that worked. We made the film for $1-million US.
"It's artistically about as far from Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo & Juliet than you can get. It's an art house film."