Starting

My car (93' Mazda 626) has been having a serious problem the past few months. I can drive as long as I want to, but as soon as I turn it off it refuses to turn back on for 30 minutes - 1 hour. The car is not overheating, and when I go to start it it just isn't catching/falling over the hill. On two occassions, when it started up, it was very quiet, idling strange and within a few minutes the dash lit up and the car stopped. The car has been idling strange for years so I haven't thought much of it, at first around 2000-1500 then to 1000. Any ideas what is wrong?