How to Memorize Passages of Text
There are many reasons you might want to be able to remember passages of a book or text. If you are religious, you may want to memorize portions of the bible. If you have to give a speech, then you might want to include quotes or stories to help make your point. 
Perhaps you are an actor? Whatever your reasons though, there are fortunately many techniques that have worked well for many people. Here are some great examples.
Practice
First of all, if you want to improve your recall then you should of course practice reading the passages that you want to learn to recall. To do this you should break down your challenge into smaller portions to make it less of a daunting task and to ensure that you are learning a smaller amount at a time rather than having a near impossible task ahead of you. 
Once you have broken your section up into smaller passages you can then practice them one at a time. There are many ways you can practice these and it's simply a matter of looking them regularly over, and of having them to hand. 
One great way to practice is to simply carry the passage with you which will give you the ability to read the passage when you are in a queue or when you are on a journey. You can do this with a smartphone, or you can do it simply by writing onto a small piece of paper. 
Another good strategy is to leave post-its around the home for yourself, or to write the passage on shiny surfaces using a machine washable pen. This way you will encounter the passage as you go around your normal routine which conveniently avoids the situation where you might simply forget to practice. 
Memory Techniques 
You can also use memory techniques to learn smaller chunks. For instance, if you want to remember a phrase you can do so by visualizing it clearly in your mind and by linking various visual images in your mind you can create a memory that will have a more lasting impression. Likewise if you want to remember numbers such as a verse, then you can do so by picturing an image based on rhyming words - so eighty five becomes weights and a hive (actually the more absurd the image the easier it will be to recall). 
You can then remember whole passages eventually by committing these images to one much larger mental image called a 'memory palace' which is an imaginary location that contains all of the images that you need in order to remember the things you are trying to recall. This is another method used by memory masters that can effectively be applied to learning texts.

