As the Scots poet Thomas Campbell wrote, "Now Barabbas was a publisher."

What’s the biggest financial mistake you’ve made?

Signing a publishing deal years ago and asking them to throw in a piano. I thought they were gifting me a piano, when in fact I was just paying for the piano. I was confused by the big leagues—financially, it was a no-man’s land. That happens to most musicians. They get screwed by the industry. It’s a rite of passage. Don’t ask for a piano!

-Rufus Wainwright