Bloom's logic inevitably led to Bardolatry. Shakespeare is mesmerising, gorgeous and terrifying, but he said it himself: The play's the thing. Influence is necessary and inevitable. It doesn't all have to be anxiety though. The implication of competitiveness in that expression misses the reason why so many people write at all: they have to say it, they just love saying it, they can say it. It's critics who more likely suffer from anxiety.