Flouncing off in a Huff, The Photo

The illustration version is here. Recently got a call from an editor about a story I had written during which she used a really indirect approach to tell me revisions would need to be made. Since I could see the criticism like a freight train coming from a long way off, I felt increasingly impatient. Eventually I got off the phone with a polite excuse, took a couple of days, and wrote down the specific information I needed from her, and we had some productive communication. When is it good to walk away to take a little breathing time and when is it, you know, kind of snotty?