My thesis aims to establish the importance of interview books as a new genre. It draws upon interview books as well as interviews given by French writers, thinkers and painters through different media channels. I argue that the interview book has changed our understanding and interpretation of the works of art and of literature and I demonstrate that the emergence of this new genre has created a dynamic that has contributed to a reconfiguring of the world of the arts. I show how interview books offer an original insight into the creative process that is not accessible through traditional critical methods.