Interphase is basically the beginning of mitosis, or you could think of it as preparing the cell for mitosis or meiosis.  Many people think that interphase actually is the first stage of mitosis, but it actually is not.  Prophase is the first stage of mitosis because mitosis is the division of the cell, and once again interphase is what prepares the cell for mitosis.  During interphase the main thing that happens is that the DNA strands thicken into chromatin.  Then the chromatin thickens into a certain amount of chromosomes depending on the animal or plant.  A cell spends most of its time in this stage, and is mainly just performing normal cell processes during this time.  So this is basically what interphase is.
 
Today I will be explaining the structure of DNA.  This is a picture of DNA.  DNA is made of things called nucleotides which consist of a sugar, a phosphate, and a base.  DNA is made of many of these nucleotides.  The base is half of a base pair.  The nucleotide on the other side of the strand of DNA matches with the base on the other nucleotide.  There are only four different bases: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, and only adenine and thymine, and guanine and cytosine are able to match up and become a base pair.  There are tons and tons of base pairs that make up a strand of DNA because it is so compact.  Also, the DNA is kind of twisted so that it makes a double helix shape.  And that is